Until Then
By Ellen Seta
There are few challenges in a young woman’s life as prominent and piercing as her yearning to love and be loved. There is an ache that tends to linger – an ache for deep, enduring fellowship. An ache to know and be known by a friend so close as to be a lover. An ache to allow another heart to rest in hers, because her heart was designed to be a resting place. She has such great love that she longs to give - to the point where sometimes it hurts that she must keep it inside.
Of course, some of the love she has is given to her family and friends, the people she serves and the people she encounters in her everyday life. She puts her love into the work she does and the tasks that she completes. Most of all, to the best of her ability, she gives her love to the Father, who nurtures and watches over her at every moment.
She knows that it is in He alone that she will ever be truly satisfied and she is content to rest in the arms of her Beloved. She is fulfilled in the Father’s love for her. She knows that He is all she really needs.
…And yet, the ache remains. It stays, even in the midst of the ever-present love of the Father for her.
Her Father knows about her yearning for a deep human love, and He allows it.
Not because He likes to see her struggle, but because in and through the struggle and the striving He is preparing her for deep, unconditional, unwavering love. It is when her heart is yearning for intimacy with another that He is instantly present, whispering, “I am here. Your Love is here. Please, please love Me - here and now.” Whether she fully realizes it or not, He is using every longing twinge of her heart as preparation. He is showing her the characteristics of true, authentic, sacrificial love, and helping to develop it within her.
With great, grace-filled effort, she accepts her ache. She recognizes that when the time is right - when her Father, loving and kind, has mended and primed her heart to a satisfactory degree - she may begin to get to know one who will ultimately be the one to take that ache away.
But until then, she smiles. She laughs. Until the time is right, she remains steadfast in Love alone. She allows her heart to continually be mended, molded and filled with grace. She allows herself to be romanced by the One who knows and loves her most, now and forever.
Until the day comes for her to welcome the one who will rest in her heart for the remainder of her time on earth, for her best friend, she happily houses only One – eternally her first and greatest Love.