In good times and in bad

It is always a very special moment when a woman and a man say “yes” to each other. But, this is neither the beginning, nor the end of a relationship. It lies in the middle and is the point at which the relationship is openly declared and mutually promised to one another.

It starts much earlier. Somewhere and at some time you got to know each other. At school, at work, during your leisure time, at Church or also on the internet. You appealed to one another and decided to get to know each other. Thereafter you fell in love, had butterflies in your stomach, the tingling sensation when you saw each other, heard from each other and just thought about each other. However, this still has nothing to do with love. It is a pleasant feeling which one enjoys with others. But, slowly and more and more, one gets to know each other, with all one's individual strengths and weaknesses. And at some stage, one decides that one wants to share one's life with the other person, to commit to them and to support them. Here, with this decision, love begins. It is the step which the Bible calls “to become one”. This has nothing to do with sexuality. It concerns a spiritual union where one identifies with another and two people become as one. The physical union is then, after the marriage, the icing on the cake. And from then on love begins to grow and become stronger “until death do we part” one day.

In the same way in which such a relationship between people begin and grow, so should our relationship with God also be.

If we haven't already grown up in a Christian home, we will get to know God at some stage of our lives. At first, that which we hear or read in the Bible may appeal to us. Then we want to get to know Him better. We sense Him with us and experience a tingling. We are in love with the God who is always for us and who came to earth in human form, for us. At some point, we then make a decision to live for Him. God and human say “yes” to each other during the baptism. Now the united life begins. We get to know Him better and better, we recognize Him more and more. His Holy Spirit doesn't only come upon us, no, He enters into us, He becomes one with us. Now this loves begins to grow. We get closer and closer to each other and start recognizing each other. And so it continues, till death do... no, death does not part us... it brings us even closer together in God's glorious eternity.

Blessed is the person who experiences both these kinds of love.

I wish you this love. Have a blessed day.

Rainer Gigerich