Love Is In The Air

Romance and love make people do silly things.  I have watched the same movie over two dozen times.  You know that one movie where the girl and the guy fall in love.  They fall in love and things are going so great until one of them lies, steals, cheats, or kills a pet.  They decided it would be best to go their separate ways but as they being life anew it seems they can’t shake the other person from their thoughts.  There is sappy and cheesy love songs playing in the background.  Maybe the guy tries to make it up to the girl but just barely misses her as she leaves her apartment.  It seems as if all hope is lost until the very end when someone blurts out some cheesy line like “you complete me” and then its happily ever after!

You know that movie right?  What was the title?  Oh yeah… every romantic comedy ever made.  

I know the plot of the movie.  Every single time, never fails.  I hand over my money for the tickets (and my man-card) and watch it.  Why?

Because I love my wife.  And she likes that movie.

That movie plays out a thousand times a day in the real lives of people.  It speaks to a longing that has been needed to be filled since Genesis 3 when all of creation was broken by disobedient sin.  There is a longing to be loved.  To believe we are valued and accepted by another.  You feel it.  I feel it.  It is a legitimate need and desire inside every single person. 

We find this all over our culture.  It is in our movies and in our music.  It comes up with our friends and family.  We hear it screaming from every avenue that we need someone in order to be complete.

How true that is.  We are created for love.  To give love and to be loved by others.  The issue arises in where we turn for love, value, and acceptance. 

We are wired for relationships.  It is the way God built us.  Adam’s first relationship was with God and when Adam sinned, that relationship was turned from child to enemy.  It was broken.  Not only was Adam’s relationship with God broken, but so was Adam’s relationship with Eve and everyone who would come after.  Sure they loved each other, but now there was the temptation to become god to another person.  

Eve wasn’t created to complete Adam.  She was created to complement him.  The only person who completed Adam (and us) is Jesus.  What happens is we put all our eggs in one basket and we would do anything for love.  The basket falls and all the eggs break and we are let down, disappointed, and hurt because the one we wanted to be god has failed us.  

The Bible records the story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah in Genesis 29.

Jacob wants to marry Rachel.  He loved her and worked seven years just to be able to marry her.  Rachel was beautiful and pleasant to look at.  She had a sister, Leah, who had “weak eyes” - that doesn’t mean she needed glasses, but that she “had a nice personality.”

Jacob fulfills his seven year work program and wants to begin his life with Rachel and husband and wife.  Rachel’s dad gets Jacob drunk and sends Leah in to marry him.  Jacob has to work another seven years in order to have Rachel.

Leah wanted more than anything for Jacob to love her.  I am sure that she was looking for her identity and value in being loved by her husband, but Jacob didn’t - - wouldn’t love her.  God saw this and gave Leah children and here is how she named them:

Reuben - “the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me” v. 32
Simeon - “the LORD heard that I am hated” v.33
Levi - “now my husband will be attached to me” v.34
Judah - “This time I will praise the LORD” v.35

Leah was unfulfilled, unvalued, and unaccepted by her husband.  She allowed that to become her identity.  Something happened between Levi and Judah.  She stopped looking to Jacob to complete her and started looking to the LORD who alone could provide everything she needed.  

When you make a relationship a god it will be marked with disappointment and bitterness.  You will get let down when you want someone to satisfy you, to save you, to give you significance.  The greatest command is to love the LORD with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  To often we love someone else the way we are supposed to love the LORD.  

Where does that get us?  It brings short-lived satisfaction.  It satisfies our thirst like drinking salt water.  It may go away for a time, but it will come back stronger than ever.  Eventually it leads to death.  

God pursues you - “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

God rescues you - “In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!”  (Psalm 71:2)

God loves you - “As indeed He says in Hosea, ’Those who were not my people I will call “my people” and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved.”’” (Romans 9:25)

This is Jesus.  The One who comes to complete you.  The One who gives you value.  The One who loves you more than anyone ever could and ever will.  

Ask the woman at the well what she thought about Jesus.