God, our Heavenly Lover
In doctrine today, Dr. Kapic spoke about the theology of election. As a pre-cursor to what I really want to talk about, I’ll give a short overview of what we discussed. Basically he talked about how 1)we have to handle the doctrine with care, 2) election is not a secret, 3) it should be comforting to us, not exclusive, and last but not least, 4) we should view election as being called by our heavenly lover. There is much more to it than these short points but it is the last point I want to expand on.
Kapic spoke about how this imagery of God being our heavenly lover makes most of us uncomfortable when in fact the imagery is all over the Bible. It talks about the church as Christ’s bride and how he calls us. Yes, we may talk about the church as Christ’s bride, but how does a groom act towards his bride? He woos her!! As Sibbes, a puritan, describes of God, he uses “words which warm and inflame the heart of a spouse.” He chose us and woos us to himself because of his Great Love for us.
But this isn’t even really what struck me. What I’m really trying to get at is what Kapic pointed out to us-that all of us are made with a deep, deep longing to be chosen. Often we seek to fulfill this longing in a boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse. We may be satisfied for a short time, but ultimately being chosen by a finite human being will not fulfill that deep longing. What will bring ultimate satisfaction is God, our heavenly lover. The love of God does not waver or change.
This really stuck out to me because this is something I’ve been struggling with. I have struggled with the longing of being loved and chosen by someone. I try to deny it saying I’m content being single and am not worried about that “whole boyfriend thing”. In general this is true, but there are those times when it is not. This is not to say that I’m looking for a boyfriend. Not that I have anything against boys, but I feel it’s best to treat my brothers in Christ as friends, not possible boyfriend material. And all I’m expecting out of my guy friends is friendship. At this time in my life, I firmly believe that God’s plan for me is to be single. This is how I am best serving Him right now, but this could change in the near future or it could remain true for a while. But to be honest that longing, the longing to be chosen, special, held, cherished and loved is there. It is not bad to have that longing in us, what matters is how we choose to fulfill that longing. Do we seek to be fulfilled by human love, that can change and is not perfect? Or do we seek to be fulfilled by God, our Heavenly Lover who is constant and longs to hold us, to cherish us, to make us special.
The fact that God is our lover and has chosen us hit home for me. I realized that in the midst of my struggle with this longing, I had forgotten how I should be ultimately and completely satisfied. Ultimate satisfaction is found in Christ. This is comforting yet convicting. How often do I turn to Christ when that longing comes? When the longing is so strong I have to hold back the tears? The answer would be not very often. And because of this I find myself left uncontent and impatient. I am convicted. Instead of dwelling on the lack of human love, I should dwell on the fulness of God’s love for me! If I let him, he will satisfy my every longing! There is no doubt about this, because He has promised it in His word and He does not break His promises.
”Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Psalm 90:14
I guess what I’m trying to say, is be encouraged. If you know how I feel (which all of us feel at some point or another), remember where your ultimate satisfaction is found: in the arms of God! He has chosen us to love and cherish, we just need to let him. He is wooing us with his everlasting love which is more fulfilling than any love we can show towards one another. I’m saying this to myself as well as to anyone who will listen, because I think we all need to be reminded every now and then. So instead of me dwelling on the fact that I feel lonely and have this “unfulfilled” longing, I need to turn and run into the arms of God, where all my longings will be satisfied. For He is the God of love, our Heavenly Lover.
