Inevitably it arrives—the chemistry, the spark, the mystery of the connection between a man and a woman. From boyhood onward we are moving toward it. Even in our very earliest years, its raw material exists in us—we could call it the lover part of our heart. It is core to our being and central to our development as image bearers. The lover stage is simply the coming of age of something that has always been there. As it awakens to beauty, so we truly awaken as lovers. For we are made for love, made to long for it, receive it, and give it. God created you and me to enjoy loving relationships with others and with God himself. When we were young, the lover part of us was primarily wired to receive. But as we mature, the lover part adds a new posture: romance, the ability to pursue.
God created us to seek and enjoy beauty and romance in all their forms. For the two go together, and they are not limited to the attraction between a man and a woman. The Creator himself woos us with affectionate words he wants us to hear, from his heart to ours, and pursues us through the beauty of his creation. Beauty and romance converge in a sunset, a piece of music, a work of art, the flicker and smell of a campfire, the spread of the landscape far below from atop a mountain.
Romance, our soul’s enraptured response to beauty, is a facet and an expression of love intimately shared between two hearts. For above all, we live in a love story. Throughout our lives, our joy, our glory, and the battle we wage are all about love.
