Romance II

Love can't be forced. God could force it, create it in us, being God. Then it wouldn't be love. We wouldn't love Him with all our heart, mind and soul. God is about choices, giving us choices, so we can be genuine. God has a problem. He's omnipotent. How do you love someone that powerful? How is God going to court us, romance us, and win our hearts? From Soren Kierkegaard, "Disappointment with God":

"Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dare breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist-no one dared resist him. But would she love him?

She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that the unequeal can be made equal."

In the story, the king renounces his throne and presents himself to her as a beggar.

Just as God sent His Son. How much love can be offered that so much sacrifice is made? God entered his own creation and suffered for us and with us. The result of that love? From Romans 5: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His won love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

How great is this Love, that such a sacrifice is made, with no assurance of returned Love. This fills me with His Love. My heart sings. I hear His song.