Love at First Sight

"Issac went out into the field one evening to meditate and when he looked up, he saw the camels[that Rebekah was riding] approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac...and asked the servant, "Who is the man in the field coming to meet us?" Genesis 24:63-65

Love at First Sight
By Rev. William Dohle

They meet one day in a crowded room. People milling about them. The boy looks up, just as the girl glances his way. Their eyes meet. And love blossoms. Years later they tell their grandkids, "I was in love the first time I saw her!"

There is a dream in every young heart of this scenario happening to them. Books are written of it. Movies made from it. Songs sung to it.

The possibility and promise of love at first sight grips many a romantic heart. The thought that from the first time they meet, love will blossom between them.

There are few stories of love at first sight in the Bible given its culture and the way men and women were given in marriage back then. But there is one. That story, taken from the pages of Genesis, tells us how Isaac and Rebekah first met. It tells of a journey made by Isaac's servants back to Abraham's homeland. Of a young woman who meets the servant at the well and the incredible leap of faith she made in traveling with him back to Isaac's home. It tells of her arrival and both her and Isaac's reaction to each other. It is the best example of romantic love we can find in the pages of Scripture.

But as romantic and wonderful as this story is, there is another side to this story as well. When we take these characters, not as Rebekah and Isaac, but as us and God, seeing their reaction to each other as God's reaction to us as we approach him.

Much has been said of the love of God, but I wonder if we fathom just how passionate God truly loves us. You see, God fell in love with us at first sight.

God tells Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart."(Jer. 1:5)

If this verse applies to us as well(as I believe it does) God knew us too before he formed us in the womb. At first sight, God fell in love with us.

But that's not where God's love ended, though. God didn't just love us from afar. He wanted to be close to us.

So he sent Jesus through whom God "...raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."(Eph. 2:6-7)

So God, not satisfied with ever being apart from us, decided to come down and abide with us from now until the time when heaven and earth will come together in his heavenly kingdom.

This good news is nothing short of a romantic love story. A love story where the lover(God) sacrifices everything to be near the beloved(us).

And the best part of this love story is that it's true! And it's for you! And me!

The thing about love at first sight is... it doesn't look at flaws. There is no list of right and wrong for first sight love. No way to earn it...or turn it away. It doesn't love because the beloved did anything special for it either or earned it in any way. It simply...is! That is the love God has for us!

And no matter how romantic we are in this life. No matter how we have(or have not) experienced the grace and love of God in relationships with others, we have this love given freely to us by God. A love that started at first sight and continues through the end of time itself.

Heavenly Father, you love and care for me more than I can possibly imagine. Allow me to take a piece of the love you have for me and share it with my brothers and sisters here on earth, through Christ our Lord. Amen.