pondering <3

Thursday, January 3, 2008

I have been thinking a bit about romantic love. It has such an ability to cause either great pain or suffering or great joy. I think that because of that, it can be inferred that it is something of great import...it is not a part of ourselves that can be ignored. My heart just breaks for all those in the world with broken hearts, for those with dashed hopes...for situations that feel like they should be right but in the end were never meant to be. I think this reflects on the great schism that is a part of our universe because of sin. There must be a reason for all the incomplete love stories in this world, with the non-Hollywood endings.

If those who were suffering because the person they loved did not love them back (or else they loved each other and could not be together for some reason) could find a reason for why they suffered so, why such a small thing in the big scheme of things could cause them such pain, perhaps the pain might be lessened a bit or else made more bearable.

I think the world is built on a love story. Love is written into the foundations of this earth. Love (or non-love) and its impact cannot be ignored, nor should we try to ignore it. I think we should try to understand...there is something big behind something that can make such waves in a cognitive being.

It is what impacts the heart of us...to think that love is represented with a heart-shape (both romantic and non-romantic love) - maybe it is something so obvious, right beneath our noses, hidden in plain sight - love is at the heart of humanity. Babies die when they feel unloved. Maybe love is what keeps us going...keeps our hearts beating.

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8

"For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' " Acts 17:28


What I wonder is what the distinction between romantic and non-romantic love should be. They both have such import...with such different nuances...I haven't figured it out. Is romantic love a subset of love...?

But then, the story of redemption is that of Christ, the Bridegroom, sacrificing for His bride, the Church. And after all the pain and suffering in this world is over, when things have been righted - there will be a great Wedding!

And romantic love is a type of that love. Perhaps that is where the meaning to romantic love lies - the redemption itself...not just the love that led to it. Maybe that is why it strikes at the very core of us? Or perhaps it is the extra bit that completes things...

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete." - John the Baptist (John 3:29)

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." - Jesus (John 15:11)

But I am not sure. Oh well. It needs lots more thought. There is some bit of differentiation needed and I haven't quite hit on it in my mind.

Come to think of it, trying to philosophize about love is a bit oxymoronic, love being the greatest emotion, and emotions being the least logical of things in this universe.

By the way, I was looking up verses that had "joy" and "complete" in them...and there seems to be a theme. It seems that completing joy has to do with closeness - either coming face to face ("I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete." - 2 John 1:11) or, even greater, when Jesus talks about it - it is "remaining in Him" - so I wonder if the significance of romantic love has to do with the intimacy of it - after all, sin made a chasm, so that intimacy was not possible - and romantic love on this earth represents the greatest earthly intimacy, which is but a shadow of the intimacy that the Church will share with Christ when it is wedded to Him.

Oh, but this is confusing...