LOVE STORIES & HAPPY ENDINGS

I absolutely enjoy watching love stories that have a happy ending.  I find myself beginning to tear up during the climax when it becomes obvious that these two people are desperately in love and will do whatever it takes to find each other and declare their feelings before it's too late.  There is the realization that they can't live without the other person, the mad dash to find them and then of course, getting caught in the predictable rainstorm for the final embrace before the credits roll. At this point you will find me in a puddle of tears, tissue in hand sobbing on the couch. 

There's something about declared feelings of love. Jesus coming to earth in the form of a man simply to die on the cross for our sins was a declaration of the Father's love for us. Romans 5:8 confirms that “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Our Father, in heaven, loved us when we weren't even thinking about Him and He showed it.  A fairly new Christian asked me recently if I thought that Jesus was aware of the reason why He was on earth. Yes, He was clear about his assignment, or he would not have prayed in the garden before his day of death, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” This is not the picture of Jesus we necessarily want to think about.  A struggling man who was desperate to find another way to fulfill his purpose without having to die on a cross.   

Might I suggest to you then, that love requires something of us that goes beyond humility or even compromise.  In marriage we inject those terms often in conversations or “strongly worded discussions” (which we call arguments) to show our spouse how lacking they are in one or both of those virtues.  However, Jesus lacked nothing and yet He still struggled with paying the ultimate cost of demonstrating true love, death. We, too, are being asked to experience death daily in our own demonstration of love towards God. In our natural bodies we will all die from something but in our love relationship with Jesus Christ we are asked to die to something.  For me, it's control over my own life, lack of discipline in certain areas and habits that rob me of time to be more productive physically and spiritually.  What in your life is the Lord asking of you?  What in your life needs to die so you can truly live and love Him?

There is a happy ending to this story.  Hebrews 12:2 states that...because of the joy awaiting Him (Jesus), He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. This is the same Jesus who, in a moment of weakness, did not want to die on the cross because it was going to be a very painful experience.  Dying to self is painful! But it is the ultimate reciprocation of love towards God and the happiest ending of all love stories.  

~Nicholine Charles