Is
Love for the Birds?
By
Marilyn
Smith
Jackson
Christian Family
After
thirty-four years of marriage, I can speak
with a little credibility on the subject of
romance in a relationship. I have noticed
that the pair who, during courtship, were
constantly referred to as the “lovebirds”
tend to lose that goofy glow, talk in mono-syllables
above the drone of the television, and ask
themselves, “Is love for the birds?”
|
Marilyn
Smith |
I
was born on Valentine’s Day. Maybe that’s
why I am a hopeless romantic. The sappier
the lyrics, the more I like the song. And
I cannot remember a time when I was not this
way. From childhood stories of the handsome
prince riding into the sunset with his princess
to the era of dancing cheek to cheek to the
sounds of Motown, I have always had this unrealistic
expectation of candlelight dinners, roses,
and intimate conversation.
My
attempts at candlelight dinners never get
off the ground. Between husband and children,
someone always asks who turned out the lights
and remedies the problem with a 150 watt bulb
– the better to differentiate between
the mashed potatoes and the fried chicken.
In my kitchen, it’s not as easy as you
might think.
While reading an advance copy of a new book
on the Jesus Habits by author Jay Dennis,
I discovered how we human beings have so distorted
the whole concept of love. Dennis points out
that as wonderful as love can be, it can also
be destructive causing people to lie, cheat,
commit murder and write lyrics like these.
“Why do birds suddenly appear every
time you are near?” In the midst of
such euphoria, get real. Would you really
turn weak in the knees or crave the close
proximity of someone who causes birds to appear
suddenly? You would indeed be concerned. However,
holding hands and gazing into his eyes –
I seriously doubt it. Didn’t Alfred
Hitchcock once bring us a horror movie about
this particular inconvenient problem?
|
 |
I’m
back to pondering the whole definition of
love. There are more than 30,000 books on
love listed in Amazon.com alone. Even if we
are failures at understanding what it’s
all about, we continue to search for some
authoritative expert who can explain it to
us or, at the very least, teach us how to
do it better.
Now
and then some lyricist actually writes something
sensible as in, “Looking for love in
all the wrong places, Looking for love in
too many faces.” Pitch your last twelve
months of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Ladies
Home Journal. We’re talking wrong places
and too many faces.
There
is really only one face we have to seek to
understand what love looks like – and
it’s not over a candlelight dinner.
It’s the bruised and battered face of
the Son of God hanging on a splintered cross
between two thieves. And even in the hour
of unrelenting pain, his thoughts were not
on himself.
It’s
impossible to miss the fact that real love
is not about what I want at all. I keep forgetting
that detail. A quick review of the well-known
love chapter in I Corinthians 13 will set
one straight in about thirty seconds. Among
about ten other impossible things, I read,
“Love is not self-seeking. It keeps
no record of wrongs. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I
whine,“Lord, do you have any idea how
hard this love thing can be?”
Silence…then,
an unmistakable and tender voice fills the
room. “Of course I do. After all, I
chose to love you.” Marilyn
Smith
February
1, 2006
Want
More? Visit
the Metro Christian Living Archive on STAR93FM.com.
