A few years ago my husband and I spend a weekend at the beach for our anniversay. It was beautiful. No kids fighting, no piled-up dishes in the sink, no bills sitting in a pile, and the most breathtaking view in the world just outside our door: the Pacific Ocean. *sigh*
As we walked hand-in-hand on the beach, we rediscovered the love we'd felt all those years ago. My very romantic husband found a long stick, drew a large heart in the wet sand, and scratched our initials around it. We kissed. It was a perfect moment. *sigh*
But as we stood looking at the heart and listening to the powerful roar of the waves, a thought came to me. Before morning, our heart would be gone. The powerful, incessant waves would rise with the tide. The ocean itself would smooth our heart back to blank, flat beach. Soon we'd pack our bags and go back to our humdrum lives; making money, repairing leaky faucets, breaking up fights and cleaning the toilet again and again... and again.
Is love like that? Try as we might, does it get overwhelmed by time and the forces of nature? Do kids, housework, and bills take over and obliterate what once seemed like endless enduring love? Is love a temporary thing?
Love for your spouse, love for kids, love for your neighbor, love for God. It's hard to "feel" it every day. The world will attempt to wipe it away, and real love is work. Real love means talking, forgiving, compromising, accepting imperfection, picking up your stick and rewriting it. You have to go back and write it again and again… and again.
That heart is gone, but the hand that wrote it is still in mine. We'll go back to that beach, or maybe a different one. We'll write our love in the sand again.
So it is with all love. The Bible is full of encouragement to persist, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." Hebrews 10:36, and promises that there will be a reward if we don't give up. "To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life." Romans 2:7
Love is like that. To stay strong it needs to be rewritten every day.
Peace, love and perseverance
