This will sound jaded – it may even come as a shock to some – but there is no such thing as happily ever after. At least, not in the conventional definition. By conventional, I mean boy-meets-girl story that ends in marriage, “and they lived happily ever after.” That, I believe, is a lie that gets peddled to girls via fairytales with prince charmings. And we buy into it so easily.
There is no denying that human beings long for love. We desire companionship. We were made for relationships.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to experience romantic love. God has designed man and woman to be together in a beautiful union called marriage. But there is something fundamentally wrong when happy ever after becomes the end-all and be-all of our earthly existence. How can we expect flawed, faulted human love to satisfy our ever-needy hearts? That kind of love will always disappoint.
The funny thing about humans is that we are easily satisfied. We run after love, only to settle for something less than the best. It’s like a child happily playing inside her dirty sandbox, ignoring the beautiful stretch of beach lying before her.
Our longing for human love has overshadowed our longing for the divine romance.
We yearn to be cherished and treasured, yet spurn the love that has gone great lengths to win our hearts. We dabble in shallow relationships. We hold on desperately to men who do not or cannot love us. We exchange true love – love that fully satisfies and makes us whole – for petty displays of affection. We despair when we lose the temporal love that we thought would make us happy. We bemoan our fate when we find ourselves alone, failing to achieve our self-crafted relationship goals.
There is no happy ever after. We chase after a dream, not fully knowing what it looks like. We always ask ourselves if we’ve found it – and if we have, how come it hasn’t made us happy the way we thought it would. We wonder if we’re on the right track, not realising we were running the wrong race in the first place. We have lost sight of the ultimate goal.
I have walked that lonely road. I have reached the end of the lane. I had stopped seeking that elusive dream, and I have found something that surpasses my wildest imagination. I have tasted and seen true love. A love so amazing that it compels me to forsake all others.
I still dream of getting married. I still long to have a husband. But I have also decided that if my husband or my marriage will take me away from God, then I’d rather not have it. I do not want to lose this intimacy I have with the Lord. I do not want to forget this feeling of being loved immeasurably. Jesus is my chosen treasure. Just as he has chosen me, so I choose him.
I await that glorious wedding day, when Jesus comes and makes everything beautiful again. The way it was always meant to be.
When I see my eternal bridegroom, I know that my joy will be made complete.
That is the storybook ending I look forward to.
