God

I think that God is quite the romantic. When I say “romantic”, what do I mean? I was reflecting this morning on Who He is and how He communicates Himself to us and I want to throw something out to think on. Romance is ultimately about being known and loved. This is an obvious statement, but I want to go a further with it.

How does God communicate Himself to us? When we read the Old Testament, specifically the Law, we see lists of rules and principles to live by. Is this the primary thing that God is after? “Here is how you live.” “This is what you do.” I think not. As I have suggested before, I think the principles exist to reveal the Person. What God is ultimately after is not for us to follow a set of principles, but to love the Person—Him. What He desires is for us to look at those principles and understand Him. What does Jeremiah say, “Let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me.” (9:24) Knowledge is the “what,” understanding is the “why”.

Let us go further. Why creation? Why did God create us to begin with? What was the purpose of it all? What does human love, in its imperfection, reveal to us? Love, in its nature, is not singular, it is plural. It requires, demands, another. And in its plurality, it grows and expands. Why do couples have children? Certainly we can suggest instinct as part of the reason, but I think there is a much deeper reason for this. There is a desire to share the love with more than just the two of them. Love in its nature is not only plural, but creative. Perhaps we can say that creation was an explosion of love between the Trinity. It was the ultimate “big bang”. I picture this in the words of God when He creates man—“Let us make man in Our image.” Feel the joy and love of God in this statement. I picture the Trinity, with a love we can only begin to imagine, being moved so deeply with one another, that creation happened. And it only grew in intensity—we move from water to fish to birds to land animals to man. Love grows in its creativity of expression.

What is something we can learn about His creation of man and woman? Notice the different ways we communicate, not only between the genders, but even in the ways we chose to communicate to others. Sometimes we are very verbal and explicit about what we want; other times we want the other person to take what is known about us and “figure it out.” Don’t we see this in how God communicates Himself to us? In some passages we find that he is very straight-forward; in others we are left to delve deeper in His character. What He wants is the same thing that He is—for us to plumb the depths of Who He is and know Him. The Psalmist writes about God’s knowledge of us—and in His heart, He wants us to know Him too.

I have suggested above that romance is about being known. What do I mean by this? Romance is romantic because the individual takes what is known about the beloved and takes action based on this understanding. The things that speak to the heart in the deepest of ways speak to it in one way because we identify with those things—it is who we are. While there is much more to romance than being known and loved, I think a big part of it is being known—because that speaks to the heart.

I do not think Christianity is about going to heaven, avoiding hell, or even getting “right” with God. It is God’s way of restoring the original design of creation. God’s purpose in creating us was love (Eph. 1), and the end and goal of Christianity is the Person. He wants you to know and love Him.

Yes, I think God is quite the romantic.