Online dating has become quite popular over the past few years. We've all seen the ads, promising all of the lonely single people of the world that becoming a member of their site will lead them directly to the man or woman they have been searching for all of their life.
"Looking for your soul mate? They're right here waiting for you!!" They boldly exclaim.
Some of these sites are more thorough than others in their effort to find the perfect match for their customers, asking them to fill out very detailed questionnaires about their personality traits, likes, dislikes, religious beliefs, hobbies, you name it.
I don't know how successful these sites are, but I would imagine that having all of the details about who we are as individuals sorted through and matched with those who are most like us would be a more successful approach than sitting in a bar waiting for that perfect man or woman to walk into our lives.
What I do know is that it's very big business. In 2012, an estimated $1.7 billion was brought in by these sites. Yes, that's "billion" with a "b."
Why are these sites so very profitable? The answer is an easy one. Nobody likes to be alone. The vast majority of single people out there would love to find that one person they can be comfortable with. Someone to share their lives with. Someone they can love deeply and who will also love them. It's an enormous draw that seems to be hardwired into us.
I wrote last week about the creation story, and how apparent God's love for us is due to the way He created everything we see just for us, but if we look closely, we can see a subtle change in how He spoke about His creation after creating man and woman and placing them in the midst of it.
In Genesis 1:3, 10, 12, 18, 21, & 25, we see God creating everything in the universe. After creating each item, He reviewed His handiwork and then exclaimed that "It was good."
He then created man and woman. In Genesis 1:31, we read that He once again sat back and reviewed all that He had made, but this time He doesn't call it "good." He calls it "very good."
After He had created all things, He created us, and we were the crowning jewels of His creation. He could've created us in a way that procreation would have been accomplished by a simple act with no emotional connection, but He didn't. He created man and woman in a way that the differences between the sexes - when celebrated and encouraged - makes the unity of the two far greater than the sum of their parts. He created us in a way that made us long for that close, intimate relationship.
This was His gift to us. He loved us, and He desired that we love each other.
The person we choose to spend the rest of our lives with will have a more significant impact upon us than any other relationship we'll ever know. This impact can be positive or negative depending upon who we choose to be with, but there can be no denying the power of such a relationship.
If that was all there was, it would still be amazing. But there's far more to it than that. As history continues from that point, God then tells us that the relationship between a man and a woman is symbolic of how our relationship must be with Him.
In Luke 10:26. Jesus was asked what the greatest of all the commandments was.
"He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"
If you have been given the gift of having somebody in your life who you love like no other, or if you're single and would truly love to find that "soul mate," Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment we've ever been given is to love God even more than we love that other person.
Why? Because that's how much He loves us. That's how much He loved us before we even knew Him. That's how much He will always love us.
It's not a natural thing to love a God you can't see in that way. It's difficult to truly grasp that. We can't do it on our own. But if we pray, asking God to teach us how to do that, He will. It is His ultimate desire for us, and unlike most human relationships, it is a love that will never disappoint us, never fail us, never leave us, never abuse us, and never leave us regretting the pursuit of such a love.
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