When we women think of a love story it usually begins with a woman and a man meeting.  The plot may be similar to the 1999 movie Mansfield Park, based on the novel by Jane Austen.  Very soon in the story we learn that Fanny Price is in love with Edmund ever since she was a young girl.  You think that he cares for her in the same way.  Yet, enter Mary Crawford and Edmund has eyes only for her.  You grief with Fanny over her unrequited love, how can Edmund pursue Mary and want her to be her his wife?  Does he not see that she isn’t a woman of good character?  Poor Fanny as she has to watch all of this unfolding before her with no one to confide in.  And Edmund seems to have created a woman in his head whom he pictured Mary to be and finally comes to the realization that she was not who he thought she was at all.  In the end, Edmund seems to wake up and realize that the love of his life has always been in front of him.   He recognizes that has been in love with Fanny all this time.   In the movie, when Edmund goes to tell Fanny that he loves her, she thinks he is just telling her in a brotherly like fashion and you can’t help but relish in this a bit as she barely looks up from her book and casually tells him she loves him too.  For we think Edmund should feel at least a twinge of pain that Fanny went through while he was pursuing that other woman.   Edmund then makes his point clear that it is a love between and a man and a woman, Fanny is elated and tells him she too loves him and they live happily ever after.  You breathe a sigh of relief and rejoice with Fanny as she has finally received her heart’s desire, the love of her life. 

As a woman the desire for a good love story to take place in your life is an exciting prospect.  The desire to be loved and to love someone back is what you seem to be created for.  God did create us for companionship and most of us marriage is something that is probable.  Yet, I do not want to write about a love story between a man and a woman, but about finding the true love of your life, the greatest love you can ever know.   

You may remember the popular television show Touched by an Angel.   The angels, Monica, Tess, & Andrew coming to the aid of someone new each week, with their purpose of telling the individual they were assigned to that God loved this individual dearly.   This message of God’s love changed that person’s life forever.   In life this is a very real message for God does love you and me, a love that is beyond measure and does change one’s life forever.  When I think about how much God loves me (and you) I am so overcome with emotions that the only way to release my feelings is to let the tears flow; tears of joy, tears of gratitude, tears that express more than I could ever convey with words.  Even now as I write and ponder God’s love for me the emotions are rising within. 

As Easter approaches, this is a time to remember how much God loves us.  For Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Please take time out to reflect on this verse and to think about this amazing love.  This is your heart’s desire, the love of your life is Jesus. 

My prayer for you today is found in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 taken from the New Living Translation,   “May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.”