Why We Long for Romance

Nate and I love watching TV shows together.  We’ve watched so many shows – ranging from Parenthood to The Walking Dead to New Girl but, to be honest, it really isn’t for the show itself that we watch.  The thing we love most about the TV shows is the conversations it sparks between us.  We discussed how we’d parent while watching Parenthood, we discussed how we’d survive a zombie apocalypse while watching The Walking Dead, and we discussed whether or not I’d allow Nate to marry Zooey Deschanel if I were to die while watching New Girl.

Our current show is Once Upon a Time.  It’s a show of magic, revenge, and finding our happily ever after.

This past weekend the new church Nate is working at had a women’s ministry event, streaming the Beth Moore conference that was happening in Wichita.  For the first time in nine and a half months I was able to leave Caleb for more than three hours.  If I had wanted to be gone for the day before this weekend, Caleb would either have refuse a bottle or Nate wouldn’t be able to have a whole day off work to watch him.  Saturday, Nate and Caleb had a boy’s day.  They had a blast and I felt revived – being allowed to be simply Susannah, not mama, for a day.

The time soaking in the Word of the Lord was rejuvenating.  One of the key points Beth Moore made in her message was that we need to have the audacity to made an unseen Savior the supreme romance of our lives.

As I listened to those words I began to ponder why romance is such a key to our lives.  Why do many little girls love to hear the fairy tales where to prince comes and whisks her off her feet?  Why are many girls waiting for their own knight in shining armor when we all know that no man can live up to that?  Why do Nate and I spend an evening or two a week watching anxiously to see if Snow White and Prince Charming ever get their happily ever after?

There are certainly times in our marriage where I am not content in the romancing I receive from Nate.  I watch chick flicks or see the ways my friends husbands romance them and I can’t help but turn to Nate with tears of dissatisfaction.  I want to be Cinderella, taken from her rags and clothed in a beautiful ball gown, chosen by her prince.

My prince, though, is not Nate.  My prince is the Lord.  As much as I love Nate and need romancing from him, my ultimate romancer is not my husband.  My ultimate romancer is my Savior, the One who laid down His life for mine and loves me more than I can ever imagine.

Nate romances me in the every day actions.  He romances me by allowing me the freedom to leave for a day while he loves on our son.  He romances me by arranging a sitter for the following day so we can get dinner together.  He romances me by the simple ways he loves me.

I need to cherish the romance my earthly love is able to pour on me but wrap myself in the romance my Heavenly love lavishes on me.

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. Psalm 63:1-5

We long for our happily ever after because we are longing for our eternal happily ever after.  We’re longing for the Bridegroom to come down from heaven to draw His bride to Himself for all eternity.  We have the promise of this happily ever after – so much more amazing than any fairy tale we could ever imagine.