A Timeless Love Story: God’s Unthinkable Romance

As I write this I am sitting in the French alps, curled up in a warm blanket and listening to soft instrumental music while gazing at the snowy skies. Winter is here. A time of hope, joy, peace. A time when we get together with family and loved ones to sing Christmas carols, admire the snow, and enjoy steaming mugs of cocoa around the fire. But most importantly, it is a time to rejoice in God’s beautiful gift to mankind: God’s unthinkable romance.

I have been reading through the prophets (i.e., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc.) for my daily quiet times with God and there is something absolutely breathtaking about reading through these books while in the Christmas season. See, the Bible isn’t just a collection of stories with moral value or even random histories that God deemed important for humanity. No, the Bible is a beautiful, timeless love story woven together in faithfulness and grace.

Every story, every word, points to God’s unthinkable romance.

In the Beginning…There Was Love

Genesis tells the story of creation and marks the beginning of God’s great love story with humanity. See we know that God is love (1 John 4:8) and that is further explained through the Trinity (God’s love is expressed within Himself as each Person of the Being, i.e., Father, Spirit, Son, loves the other in perfect, selfless love). And this perfect, selfless God who abounded in perfect, selfless love created life (humanity) so that He might have a perfect, selfless relationship with His creation (being…you and me).

That was the beginning of the love story.

But humans cannot love like their Creator. Because we are not inherently perfect and selfless we are not able to grasp the flawless love of a flawless God. So, in a dreadful moment of human ambition…as the world waited in hushed silence upon its fate…sin was birthed in this messy thing called life.

God was faithful.

Mankind was not.

But He had a plan. He wasn’t finished yet, wasn’t ready to give up on this perfect, selfless love. The Lover of our Heart wasn’t done fighting for us. So, He came up with a plan: God’s unthinkable romance.

Broken Covenants, Faithful God

In the time of the prophets, the Israelites were continually turning from God and seeking worldly pleasures. The nation is repeatedly referred to as a harlot; in fact, the entire book of Hosea is a story of a man remaining faithful to his faithless wife (a harlot) which represents Israel’s recklessness and God’s redeeming love.

There are dozens of chapters where God speaks to the prophets about the atrocities, horrors, and tragedies He will bring upon Israel because of their faithlessness. These chapters detail death and suffering and pain that seems to have no end, for Yahweh’s anger with His people, the faithless lover, is great.  

“Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel. No refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor escape for the lords of the flock. A voice – the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock! For the LORD is laying waste their pasture, and the peaceful folds are devastated because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”—Jeremiah 25:34-37

But it doesn’t end there. Every nightmare ends in God’s breathtaking promise of “I will remember.”

Jeremiah 30:11 says, “For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

Yahweh, being just, punished Israel for her faithlessness…but He, being faithful, did not break His covenant to save and restore her.

God was faithful.

Mankind was not.

And still He pursued His unthinkable romance.

Peace on Earth: God’s Unthinkable Romance Unveiled

And then one night, as the prophets had declared hundreds of years before…to the weary hearts walking Israel’s dusty streets, the angels sang of peace on earth. Humanity couldn’t reach God, we are too filthy, too broken, too human…so He came to us.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”—John 1:14

That is God’s unthinkable romance.

Because despite our brokenness, helplessness, faithlessness…despite our disgusting, sinful hearts…the King of Heaven loved us. Loves us.

Who could ever dream to hope of a God that seeks a filthy people who runs from Him, denies Him, betrays Him, and attacks Him? And yet the Creator of all mankind is, in an overwhelming love story, faithfully seeking His heart’s love…though we hide from His arms and faithlessly chase worldly pleasures and disgrace. How breathtaking. How beautiful. And how unthinkable.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”—Isaiah 9:2

Remember the Lover of Your Heart

My friend, I do not know your story. I do not know who has hurt you, betrayed you, defeated you, or scarred you. But I do know this…the true Lover of your heart is faithful. The Bible gathering dust in your family living room? That is His story for you. The recounting of a timeless love story that ends in God’s unthinkable romance. For you. He did all of it for you.

All the years of chaos and confusion.

All the pain and the suffering.

The chasing a faithless people with a faithful love…

He did it for you.

Because He is the true Lover of your heart, always and forever.

And love never fails.