Romancing the Heart

It’s the season of love. Maybe that makes your heart swoon or fills your nerves with trepidation. 

If I’m being honest, I’ve experienced both. Swooning one moment and filled with trepidation the next. The idea of love can feel hard at times because I’ve been hurt before. I’ve had people betray me, control me, and cheat on me. But the way people have treated me cannot determine my view of true love. 

I know, I’m a romance author, so there should be butterflies and blue skies all the time. 

Actually, that’s not a realistic portrayal of love. 

And although it might make sales numbers decline, I don’t want you to swoon over a fictional couple. 

Hang with me here for a second. 

When you see a beautiful love story on the page, I pray it’s not a relationship that is idolized but an example that points to the ultimate Lover of our souls. 

See, a romance on the page is a precursor and shadow of the sweetest love of God.

Regardless of how you’d answer the question of how love makes you feel, deep down we all love love because it’s wired in our DNA. There’s an innate longing to be known, pursued, cared for, and cherished! 

So when you see characters loving each other on the page by forgiving, pursuing, speaking gently, encouraging, sharing truth, listening, and serving each other–even when they don’t deserve it, it gives us a glimpse of the perfect love found in Jesus. 

The love we ultimately long for.  

I was recently asked what my favorite romance tropes are. Hands down it’s enemies to lovers and second chance romances because these show how two people who had no interest in each other or didn’t deserve one another end up falling in love. 

And here’s the stunning part about those tropes:

It’s what the Gospel portrays. 

Against all odds, Love made a way, and we saw the beauty of Jesus as He pursued us, His enemies, and He’s given us a second chance to love Him despite our rebellion and sinful past. 

Oh, how sweet His love for us is. It’s His love that causes us to love others, whether in real life or on the page. 

And spoiler: real love doesn’t fit neatly into a romantic relationship, either. 

1 Corinthians 13, known as the love chapter, which is shared often at weddings, was actually written to a church. A body of brothers and sisters–not a husband and wife. Yes, the commands certainly apply in a marriage, and a marriage is a beautiful display of the covenantal, unconditional love of God. 

But our love transcends marriage and should encompass all our relationships. 

If you think about it, how often is the word love spoken in everyday language? Love is an overused word in our culture. We can throw the term around without attaching genuine meaning to it. We often speak it, but we don’t want to put it into practice. 

Love is not something we can simply name and claim. We must understand it, be transformed by it, and live it out. 

In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we would grasp God’s love for us. And again in Philippians 1 he prays that we might grow in knowledge and depth of insight as we love. 

There is a vast beauty to the way we love. And how we show love to people will vary. Some may need love through encouragement or discipline or patience or a listening ear. 

However it looks in a given situation, may we love those around us well and reflect God, whose steadfast love is never changing. 

For His glory, 

Laura