Young Love

For some unexplained reason, as I sat upstairs enjoying a mid-day rest yesterday, I began to think about many of the fun and zany things that my wife and I did together when we were first dating in High School.  The walks in the park, the rolls and rolls of film that I took of her (I think that every project I did in my photography class included some portraits of her!), the softball games and trips to the beach with our friends, the countless hours that we must have spent holding hands and laughing (we once got in trouble with the school principal for holding hands in front of the school during the lunch hour!), all the Round Table beef and onion pizzas we devoured, or just sitting quietly looking into each others eyes.

There were days where it seemed like time stood still when I was in her presence.  When we would say goodbye after school, I couldn’t wait to call her when I got off work.  Then after the nightly call I could hardly sleep as I anticipated seeing her at school the next day!  I guess all that varied array of feelings going on inside and the sense that I was walking on air when with her is what they call "young love!"

Today as I glanced at Psalm 91:14-16, I understood that this is the type of wonderment that we should also share in our love with God.  Verse 14 opens up with the Lord saying about us: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath known my name.”  (KJV)  To “set” your love implies a strong and sincere affection with “the settlement and fixedness of it, so as nothing could separate from it.”  (John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible)  That’s the way it was and continues to be between my wife and I. Back in High School there was no other activity, job, person, place or thing that could draw away my affection and attention from her.  And there was nothing that I wouldn’t do for her.  (Hey… I was working part-time at a Printing Shop earning the big bucks - $1.75 an hour!)

Is that the same type of relationship that you and I enjoy with our heavenly Father?  For me, there are times that I would answer a resounding YES!  But to be honest, there are other times where the demands of the job, the family, or even recreational activities have overridden my focus of Him.  The word in this Psalm makes it clear that as we determine to “set” our love on Him, that He will respond in the like by rescuing us and protecting us at all times, in every situation.

Now that’s the type of relationship that I want to have with Him.  How about you?  When you walk out the doors of your church are you already beginning to highly anticipate the very next time that you will get to spend time with Him?  Do you experience a wonderful and unexplainable sense of joy when you think about Him?  It is possible, you know!  That’s the goal I’m going to set, and I can use those feelings that my wife and I enjoyed back in the beginning of our relationship as the initial target for my level of love that I “set” upon Him!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”