On a Christian Campus

So, there’s this guy. He’s pretty much the most amazing guy ever. He’s caring, sensitive, talented, intelligent… the list literally goes on forever. He’s absolutely perfect. And do you want to know the best part? He’s in love with me! He tells me I’m beautiful, he wants to marry me, and He loves me so much he would die for me—He has, in fact. You see, we kind of have a long distance relationship; He’s currently sitting at the right hand of His Father, but we’ll be together soon. In the meantime, He writes love letters to me. Some of them are stories thousands of years old, some of them are beautiful poetry, but they all have the same message: He loves me, and He’s coming soon.

I would like to say that I am madly in love with Him too, and that I can’t ever stop thinking about Him. But the truth is, long distance relationships are hard. I get distracted really easily by what other people think of me—especially guys. I mean, I’m at a Lutheran college, so I’m surrounded by great future-husband material, and it’s pretty hard not to worry about what they think of me. However, I forget what being in a relationship with Him means. The One who created the universe, with all of its intricate beauty, thinks I am worth dying for. That should be life changing. Instead, I forget to read the Word that He gave to me, and I might go a whole day without speaking to Him. I try to find fulfillment everywhere else but in His arms.

But of course, He’s told me about this already. In the story of Hosea, the people were also searching for fulfillment in worldly things. At God’s command, Hosea married a prostitute, but she was unfaithful to him, and she went back to her old life. God told Hosea to buy her out of prostitution and take her back as his wife. This was to illustrate the love that God has for his people, that even when they loved Him conditionally and intermittently, God’s love was unconditional and unfailing. He says, “I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD” (Hosea 2:19-20).

My love for Christ, like the love of the Israelites, is conditional and broken. I won’t stop struggling with this while I’m in college, or when I get married, or when I grow older. I will struggle with this until the day I die. However, it is comforting to know that Christ’s love for me is everlasting. Nothing is able to separate me from His love.

Contributed by K.M.