Perfectly loved

If asked, I wonder how many people would say that they had never found the love of their lives? As I ponder that, it seems to me this is a myth, that even soul mates have their times of wishing the person beside them were different or that they had made another choice.

Lest that sounds cynical, is it true that God made us with this sense of wanting but never having perfection? It isn’t just in love, but in the places we live and the leaders we choose. It is possible to love my home, but actually I’m just well-adapted. It has its quirks, small irritants that I would fix if I could. As good as it gets, this is not heaven.

It is the same with leaders. I’m reading 1 Kings this week, the story of Solomon. It starts well and he is beloved, but in the end, he disobeys God, winds up with 700 plus women in his life and multiplied gods rather than worshiping and serving the true God. Is it not the same with our elected officials? We like them in the beginning, enough to vote them into office, but soon they fall off their perch and we are calling for another election.

I don’t think that this is the fault of faulty people and places, but that our hearts were not created to be content with anything but the One who created us. Like children who can only fall asleep on mother’s lap, we can rest only in the One that we totally trust because we know that He totally loves us.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

The love of Christ is utterly amazing. Once realized, it puts down roots and secures our hearts. Once we grasp its extent, we find that it has tied us in an intimate relationship with God, a relationship like no other ever known.

There are hurdles. Perhaps the biggest one is that sense of being completely unworthy of such love. If I felt that way about my spouse, I’d not be able to enjoy our relationship or deepen that intimacy. Yet when it comes to the love of Christ, He takes the initiative and persists in it. No matter what I do or fail to do, Jesus Christ loves me.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…. but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6, 8, 10)

Jesus Christ is the perfect soul mate. In Him, no matter where I am, is the perfect place to be. He is also the perfect leader, one who never fails me. Sometimes, because I am a sinner, I might cast my vote in the wrong places or for the wrong people, but His vote for me is always YES. His love is far greater than anything I do or fail to do because it isn’t about me; it is the way He is.