God is a romantic?
I think God might be a romantic. I know He’s a poet (look how many books of the Bible contain poetry or are completely poems). And poets, naturally, tend to have a romantic disposition (ahem, Song of Solomon). “Romantic” doesn’t always refer to romantic love. The word can also be defined as idealism or longing for an “idealized reality” (Merriam Webster, Google). Poets who write mostly about nature are still romantic, I think. The world is romancing them, and they are romancing it with their words.
Along with the nature poets, I think God is romantic, too. Think about it: He made creation. Each beauty that captivates you— the star-studded sky, a sunset melted with purples and pinks, the broad shoulders of a mountain— was created by God, Himself. He is constantly wooing us with the earth; it all shouts His glory. Even the rocks cry God’s praises (Luke 19:39-41). He didn’t have to make creation beautiful, yet He did. He takes pleasure in the earth and longs for us to see Him through its lens. God is concerned with beauty because He is the source of it; He is the utmost beautiful one. God is a romantic on the broadest scale: the creator of trees and hills and love itself. (This doesn’t even mention Jesus Christ, who the Father sent so we can be unified to God forever.)
Each beauty that captivates you— the star-studded sky, a sunset melted with purples and pinks, the broad shoulders of a mountain— was created by God, Himself. He is constantly wooing us with the earth; it all shouts His glory.
But, I don’t think God’s romance towards the earth stops on the broad scale. I think this quality of His extends to an individual level. If He truly is a personal God, He cares about our specific, personal lives. He cares about our singleness, marriages, and dating relationships. He even cares about our romantic experiences that don’t amount to anything. At least, that’s what I’ve found. Some moments in my life have been so strangely coincidental that I’ve only been able to pin them to a divine romantic.
Let me explain—
A couple summers back, I went to my cousin’s wedding a week after starting to date my boyfriend at the time. He had the same name of the town the wedding was in— and his birthday was on the day of the wedding. Strange. Another time, a college crush and I wrote almost the same line in separate poems on the same day. Weird, right? Now, neither of those lasted. My ex and I didn’t work out. I’ve moved on from that college crush. But isn’t it strange? That you can have moments of inexplainable coincidence, even if it didn’t end in “happily-ever-after”? Here are my only explanations:
God has a sense of humor
God is a romantic
I’ve become convinced, or at least suspicious, that God sometimes allows His children to have romantic experiences just because… He does. No other reason. Sure, there were lessons and growth encased in those experiences. But I think He gives us those weird coincidences, the similar lines of poetry and names of cities, because He likes to make our lives interesting. Maybe God values sparks and full circles, irony and metaphors. Maybe He writes in these little marks of fate to awaken our souls. To make us look up to the stars, seeing that there is something, or Someone, bigger and greater than ourselves.* I think He values us enough to care about the tiny romantic details of our lives— even if they were never meant to last.
Maybe He writes in these little marks of fate to awaken our souls. To make us look up to the stars, seeing that there is something, or Someone, bigger and greater than ourselves.*
I could completely be off on this. Maybe there’s not meant to be a “reason” at all. But, I know at least—
God is a much better writer than me.
___
Quotes & What’s Relevant:
* The idea, “They make us look up at the stars, seeing that there is something, or Someone, bigger and greater than ourselves,” was inspired by a book I’ve read recently. It could be chapter five of The Listening Life by Adam S. McHugh. It could have been something my professor said in class. I’m not quite sure. (Highly suggest that book, regardless)
“When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?”
- Psalm 8:3-4
"i thank You God for this amazing" by E.E. cummings:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
- E. E. Cummings
“Some loves weren't meant to be had
Only to be felt”
- Lyric from “Friends Who Kiss” by Eloise
