By Bo Sanchez
Carol was peeking through the window again.
Daily, she’d watch the sweet couple next-door, doing their morning ritual: Before the husband went off to work, he’d kiss his wife, give her a hug, and declare to her, “I love you!” for all the world to hear. Each morning, Carol saw this sight, and every time, her heart was filled with envy.
Finally, one day, she couldn’t take it anymore.
So Carol confronted her husband Pete. “Why can’t you be like our next-door neighbor?” She pulled the curtain for him to take a look. “See? This man kisses his wife, embraces her, and says, ‘I love you!’ every morning. Every Morning! Why can’t you do that?”
Pete’s face was pale. “Honey, I can’t do that!”
“Why?” Carol asked angrily.
“Why, Honey, I… I don’t even know that woman!”
“Sheeeeeesh. Pete, I’m not asking you to do it with that woman. I’m asking you to do it with me!”
“Oh…” he muttered blankly.
“Tell me that you love me again. I haven’t heard it in a long time now!”
Pete shrugged his shoulders. “Gee, Carol, I don’t know. I mean, I said, ‘I love you’ thirty years ago during our honeymoon. And I told you that if I changed my mind, I’d tell you. Well, I haven’t.”
By now, I think many wives reading this would like to throw a few cooking pans in the direction of Pete’s head.
Let me ask you a question. Why is it necessary for spouses to tell each other, “I love you” each day? I mean, can’t one ‘I love you’ be sufficient for the next thirty years?
This is the same principle that works for reading the Bible. Or from learning about God. (Huh?)
That’s right. As mushy as this may sound, the Bible is God’s love letter to you.
And so, in your daily “Scripture” time, you can’t say, “This is boring. I’ve read this story before”; or, “Oh no, today’s reading is the Prodigal Son again. Gosh, I’ve read this a million times; or, “The beatitudes? Again? I can recite that in my sleep!”
So what? You see, you’re forgetting one thing: Christianity isn’t just a religion. It’s primarily a relationship.
It’s a personal relationship where “I love you” is repeated for a million times.
The temptation among Christians is to look for the new, the esoteric, the higher learning, the advanced subjects with big words—thinking that they can graduate from the basics. Stuff like trust. Obedience. Humility. Faith. Surrender.
And God whispering, “I love you” in our hearts again and again and again.
If you feel like you can graduate from the basic stuff, I think you’re in the wrong religion.
Because this one has no graduates.
We remain students of love, forever.
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