She was the most beautiful little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in Mrs. Woodmansee’s Kindergarten class, and I was in ‘love.’ It was to be the first of my many grade school crushes in an epically long saga of unrequited love.
Feel free to insert your angsty sigh right here.
I do not recall many things from those early years, but in this romantic pursuit, I have preserved more than a few HD memories.
Pushing the merry go round during recess in impressive fashion with a ferocious display little boy testosterone.
Destroying my rivals of this young crush on the dodge ball court with ruthless and merciless abandon.
And, never making eye contact with the object of my affection.
Yes, that’s right, no holding hands or sweet conversations or evidence of awareness of my existence. The year-long pursuit of my first love should definitively be categorized as “FAIL.”
Still, other memories of that first year of elementary school surround a different girl. I remember her distinctly because there was plenty of eye contact… she was always looking at me.
This little, freckled ginger was always by my side telling me how strong I was when I pushed the merry go round.
Handing me her dodge ball which she collected instead of throwing it herself.
Feeling her eyes on the back of my head, all the time.
Oh, the good things we miss because we are focused on ‘something else.’
I watched that early crush grow up, the little blonde girl I chased, longed for and fixated on only to come to one conclusion: that would have been a mistake.
This is life, isn’t it?
We spend so much of our life chasing the wrong things; working hard for the affections of a love that will never love us back.
We become obsessed with the thought of something that never will be, heartbroken over things that never should be, and consumed with things, people, desires that in the long run are nothing but destructive to us.
When, right there the whole time, God is by your side. He has been pursuing you while you pursued others.
He’s been encouraging you while you have ignored Him.
He has been in love with you, longing for you and fixated on you long before you ever even turned around and recognized He was there.
How many times have we chased a rainbow only to find that a rainbow can’t be caught? Or, worse yet, we catch up to what we have pursued only to realize it was a bad mistake.
We give all to jobs that never satisfy.
We offer ourselves on the altar of relational sacrifice to unworthy objects of worship.
We long for treasures that decay and dissolve almost the moment you finally get your hands on them.
Romans 8:37-39 says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Consider this little article a note passed to you in class from the God of the universe who has been pursuing you. As you undo the intricate fold, the message becomes clear. One statement with a check box to respond:
“I love you, do you love Me. Check Yes or No.”