Liz Crumlish, a Church of Scotland minister working on a national renewal project Path of Renewal, writes about the exciting but often challenging experience of love and romance.
Romance
All those covert looks
trying not to get caught
trying not to be obvious in the attraction Hanging around for a glimpse
with butterflies in the stomach
Unable to eat, dreaming of what might be…
The knowledge, that this is not like other loves, those mere infatuations fade into the background in the face of real love
fun for a time and season
but incomparable when things step up a gear
in the serious business of love.
For then, there is something worth pursuing, worth the work
worth fighting for
a light that refuses to be extinguished but that always shines through -
A flicker in the darkest of times
That wraps itself around and within, refusing to let go or give up.
Real, gritty, sometimes tough love.
Intimacy
Human beings
created in the image of God
meant for relationship
for intimacy
for that closeness
where lines are blurred
and it’s hard to tell where one finishes and the other begins and in the midst of it all
there you are, O God
intimately involved with your creation
loving us into being
loving us all through life
loving us through death and new beginnings
created and nurtured in love for all time
The Divine mystery.
Thanks be to God.
Heartbreak
And God, in those days of heartbreak, when we feel like less than you created us to be. When love seems in short supply and life conspires to diminish the divine spark that is in us
Gently remind us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, created in your image, sustained by your love.
And in that knowledge, raise us up to be all that you created us to be, beloved children of God, on whom God’s favour rests, in whom God’s love resides, with whom God’s peace abides.
Love
God, you have created humans to be unique and yet connected.
To be independent and yet reliant on others.
To be individual and yet part of a whole.
May we rejoice in the freedom to make connections and discover common purpose in all sorts of people and places.
And may we be willing to risk commitment, the commitment of love.