Last night I watched the movie “Twighlight: Breaking Dawn Part 1” and was actually somewhat impressed. I didn’t like every aspect of it of course, but it was a decent movie and I liked it more than I thought I would (and it was FREEJ. As a disclaimer, the honeymoon scenes are pretty inappropriate and certainly excessive.
What bothers me most about the movie is not the partial nudity or the baby delivery. What bothers me most is the portrayal of love and relationships. My first instinct was to be disappointed because we’re teaching young children and teenagers that this is what love is, but after more consideration I realized that we, as a society, have been teaching and have thought that this is what love is for a far longer time than 1 week. Here’s what I mean.
If I were to ask you (I’m guessing most of you) what the perfect picture of love is, the first thing you’d want to tell me is a healthy marriage or a fluffy date or sex. I’ll be the first to admit that I’d probably be guilty of it too. I’m not trying to preach from a soapbox here, but the reality is that most of television, commercials, friends, and perhaps to some extent, even the church has told us that a marriage is the greatest thing in the world; that it is the greatest fulfillment of the greatest need we have, which is love. I agree that healthy marriages and fluffy dates and sex are all in the realm of love, but I don’t think they’re the top out.
The reality is that those who are most in love with Jesus would not answer the question the way that you and I perhaps would. Yes, I’m sure you love God and as do I. I’m not asking if you love Him at all, but asking if He is your everything. Is He who you like to talk to in your down time? Is He the most important person to you? Is a relationship with Him the epitome of what love is and ought to be? Those who are most in love with Jesus already know that nothing and no one else could compare to the love we find in Christ; I don’t know about you but that’s who I want to be. That’s how I want to live.
The good news is that if you’re reading this, you’re alive. If you’re alive, there’s still hope. There’s still hope to change our perspective on love. When we change the height of love from being Jesus Christ to being a spouse, we do what we want with it. Fortunately love doesn’t work that way. God is not who you want Him to be. You cannot change Him, and even if you could, anything you would change Him into would be less than what He actually is. The people with the happiest marriages are those in which both people are in love with Christ more than they are in love with each other.
Through daily meditation on the things of God (and I am not limiting it to the bible. While the bible is certainly important and useful, God is greater than what can be contained in that book, because He is everywhere), developing a desire to be closer to Him, spending time with Him actively, sacrificing what you want most now to the One you wish to want most, and everyday speaking with Him and hearing His voice, we will find that He is far greater than this world’s idea of love. He is far greater than we have imagined.
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