Love Stories

We love because he first loved us.  

1 John 4:19 NIV

A Love Story

"That's so cute." Not exactly the words I expected to hear from my seventeen year old daughter as she read through the funeral bulletin while we stood in line at the wake. My eyes widened as I asked her, "What is so cute?" She held the memorial bulletin out for me to see. (And I promptly moved it about six more inches away from my face so I could indeed read it--teenagers just do not get it!)

Our Love Story

Bob and Shirley met at the Illinois State Fair, August 15, 1953. She was 17 and he was 20. Bob bought Shirley a lemonade and asked her to ride the ferris wheel. They lived happily ever after.

Bob carried this photo (of their first date) in his wallet every day since 1953.

My great aunt and uncle's love story is cute, and sweet, and the fairy tale romance every little girl dreams will come true for her. Bob and Shirley came from truly impoverished backgrounds, but for fifty-nine years, together they developed a rich, treasured life in Monroe, Wisconsin, parenting four beautiful children and creating a legacy of kindness and charity in their community. Their humble, giving spirit shaped them as individuals and as a couple. They will always be remembered as a blessing to the youth of that rural town, and I will always have the honor of calling them my godparents.

Your Love Story

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Genesis 29:20 NAS

Girlfriends, maybe you have a sweet love story too. Perhaps your Prince Charming swept you off your feet from the first moment you met, just as Bob did Shirley. Or maybe you were the one to initiate the first date like someone I know! Possibly your husband has carried a photo, or letter, or some other memento in his wallet over the years. Or maybe, like Uncle Bob's brother-in-law, your husband has never once removed his wedding in sixty years of marriage. (The hospital threatened to cut it off when he recently had surgery and refused to remove it. As a result, he held his ring fingertip next to his wife's ring fingertip and slid the ring onto her hand until after the surgery when he slid it back in the same manner. Another "how cute" story for my daughter!)

Ladies, I do not know your circumstances, but I do know that some of you are reading this and weeping. You have longed for a sweet love story but the inkwell has been dry. Your pages are still blank. Or maybe your beautiful love story did not have a happy ending, or it is presently falling to pieces. While you are smiling at the sweetness of Bob and Shirley's tale, you are hurting or longing deep inside. Take heart, my darlings, and continue reading...

Your True Love Story

On whichever end of the spectrum you find yourself, I want you to know that you have another love story to tell--one perhaps you know very well, or one you are not even aware is happening. Either way, I promise each one of you possesses this story because it is the story of God's perfect love for you. 

 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 NIV

My friend, even before you were conceived in your mother's womb, you were loved by God. He knew everything about you, and He cherished each detail: from your hair color to the shape of your face, from your personality to your special talents. He has always carried an image of you in His heart. He wrote you beautiful poems and stories; He fashioned the skies, the stars, the flowers, the fields, and the heavens for you; Girlfriends, He even came to earth as a Man and died for you because He loved you so much and wants you to be with Him eternally. No other love compares to this one--it is perfect love. And every love you have here in earth, as today's key verse states, exists because you were first loved by God.

My dears, Jesus is seeking you, pursuing you, desiring you to know His love and to return His love. All you have to do, if you have not already, is say yes. Your love story is exclusively penned by the author of love, the Creator of love, the one Who IS love. I pray you will embrace it--no fairy tale, not even the most romantic earthly love, can replace the depth and completeness of your Savior's love for you. 

You Love Because You Were First Loved

My Aunt Shirley and Uncle Bob knew the love of Jesus, and they lived it out both in their own marriage and individually in their lives of service to others. Girlfriends, live in the light of the greatest love of all, knowing this story is yours too, and if you accept it, the ending is always happy!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are...1 John 3:1 NIV

Have a blessed weekend, and let your loved ones know how much they mean to you!

A Song in Honor of Bob and Shirley: God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes