Cinderella falls in love with the first prince she laid eyes on at the ball. Ariel leaves the sea for her love at first sight that was not even sure who she was until half way through the movie. Ana believes she will marry the man that she loved at first sight until he leaves her lying in the floor cold and alone. Get where I am headed? We love the idea of love at first sight. We love the thrill of the chase of always walking around with the hope that the next handsome fella we lay eyes on will sweep us off our feet and hopefully two kids later still love us enough to sweep the kitchen floor too. We crave it, read it, dream of it and buy into it time after time but I don't believe in it. I do not believe in love at first sight and let me tell you why.
Sight is blind. Our perception of the world has been wrapped up in sin from the day that Eve ate the forbidden fruit and Adam let her. Having eyes for the world involves seeing things that man adores and God constantly restores. Looking around for the one means that you are likely missing your one and only. Ladies, let me be the first to break it to you, love at first sight simply cannot be possible when you take into account how during the fall of man, humans eyes were opened to both good and evil. Allow me to rephrase that... you may fall in love with what you see but just because you feel love and can see it with your eyes does not make it the true, everlasting or grounded in the covenant of Christ type of love.
Love at first sight does not even apply to God's love for us let alone our love for others, especially one other. God did not first love you when he created you in the womb. He did not pioneer his love for you when you were born and the world first saw you. He did not even initially love you when you came to the cross and were adopted into the family. Gosh, that is such an awful concept of God's love. Small too.
The God of the Universe loved you when he created Adam and Eve to be those that would give life to the lineage of people who gave life to you. He loved you when he flooded the earth in Genesis 6 and sent a rainbow to remind His people that he would never again do so. He loved you when he led the Israelite people out of Egypt and into freedom from slavery. He loved you every single moment of every day since the world was spoken into creation and has loved you violently ever since. When his Son brutally bled to death in front of both family and enemies and heaven was torn, God loved you. He is not such a small minded God as to only love you once he could physically see you. Posh. That would be absurd compared to his sensational pursuit of you from the dawn of time.
Therefore, sweet child whom God loves, why would we believe that love begins with sight? Why do you have to wait until you meet your husband for the first time (or tenth) to love him enough to prepare yourself to become his wife by walking in purity and obedience? Why do you have to see that first sonogram before you begin renouncing generational sin in your family and living in a way suitable for raising a tiny human? Why do you pretend that you are loved when you are seen naked and vulnerable by a scum bag of a human that is not your husband or doctor as if your entire existence is not marked by Gods continual provision and love for you when all along you have been clothed in adorning grace?
Because, the world has told us love is based on what our eyes can see. And if you missed it, look again. Look harder. Get glasses. Do what you must to see and be seen.
When in reality "the Lord appeared to [you] from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." say Jeremiah 31:3.
