I pre-ordered my first c.d. in January: Fading West by Switchfoot. In my usual overly-excited manner, I listened to the three songs that were available, and made myself happy by pushing the "Show Complete Album" button on Itunes.
I know, it sounds like a sad life. For some people, it probably would be, but I am not one of those people. I loved looking at the song list, imagining what the songs would sound like, guessing which ones would be my favorites.
"'Let It Out' sounds like it has promise," I thought, hearing a melody with those lyrics that sounded more like a Josh Groban line than a Switchfoot chorus. That was okay. Part of the excitement was in the not knowing, and I trusted Jon Foreman not to let me down.
He didn't. "Let It Out" is one of my favorite songs on the album, and that's saying quite a bit because it's a great album. "It was love at first sight for me with this song. Or should that be love before first listen?" I thought the other day. In case you're wondering why I was thinking this, well, I can't be 100% sure why I think anything. However, in this case, I'm almost certain that I was trying to come up with something, anything, to keep me from breaking out into some embarrassing dance moves to the music only I could hear.
My motives for thinking aside, I quickly realized that thought wasn't accurate. In actuality, I loved that song before first time I heard it. Admittedly, the first love was entirely different from the second, but it was there nonetheless.
That thought led to another: "You know," I said to myself, even though I obviously did already know what I was thinking, "That's what I want for my future marriage." Any two people can create a story where they fall for one another's looks, personality, smile, smarts, smell, or whatever else causes people to fall in love at a certain time. I want to love before first sight, to say, "I don't know who he is, or what he's like, but I'm so excited about the fact that we're going to be together someday that I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that I can love him in the best way possible when he finally comes along."
It's a good thing that's the kind of sentiment that is best expressed by actions, because I'm not sure that I have the breath capacity for a run-on sentence of that length. What are these actions I'm talking about? Well, one is being pure and guarding my heart, because I don't want there to by anything superficial and jaded about our relationship. Others would include improving my relationships with my family that I live with now, learning skills that I need in order to be prepared to live away from my parents (read: cooking.), praying for him, and trusting his (and my) Creator not to let us down, because He never has.
This is where the analogy stretches itself out even further. It occurred to me that "love before first sight" should really be the story of my entire life. Because, from an eternal perspective, this is really just another waiting period.
The purchase of my salvation has already been made; my future has been created by the God I've come to trust while I'm here. Earthly reality, for me, should be a time of preparation for and anticipation of the time when I will finally see my Savior- an experience that will far surpass anything I'll ever experience in this life.
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."
~1 John 3:2-3
