By Dawn Smiling
The movie,
Jerry McGuire, is one of my favorites. Not only because I have a crush on Tom Cruise, but I find many spiritual messages tucked away in this movie.
Jerry McGuire (Tom Cruise) marries Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) after she is the only person who supports him when he is fired. She is in love with him, but he is distant and caught up in his moral awakening and staying afloat in his business endeavor (for which he was fired).
His business works out and he goes back to Dorothy to profess his love for her. He bursts into their living room with an unsure hello as he surprisingly greets a room full of her friends and begins to explain that his business success was hollow without her and she completes him. Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) interrupts him to say “you had me at hello.”
We are tested every day to step out and love when we are not sure if the love will be reciprocated. It can be difficult to see and feel love when the very thing you are clinging to is no longer clinging to you. The loss of the love of a husband, the death of a mother or father, or a dear friend to illness can skew your view of lasting love. As women we are instructed that no matter what, God is there. But can you be vulnerable enough to say “well, He didn’t show up last week”.
We are looking for God’s love in our spouses, our families, our children, and our friends. I learned that these avenues only showed me a glimmer of God’s love. I learned the width of God’s love through John 3:16 “
for God so loved the world”. It was the world that God so loved. It was not a nation; it was not the good people; it was not only the people who loved him; it was the world. The unlovable and the unlovely, the lonely who have no one else to love them, those who love God and those who never think of him, those who rest in the love of God and those who spurn it. We are all included in this powerful, resilient, and persistent love of God.
Just as Jerry realized he is nothing without Dorothy; and she forgave him, God is there waiting for us to realize that he wants to be first in our lives so when the tough times come, we won’t lose ourselves in the drama. We will focus on his voice of comfort and never ending love. We will learn to love as God loves.
God can see and hear you, and he loves you deeper than your closest Valentine. If you keep him first, God will complete every relationship you have. His love will bring new and safe relationships into your life. He will show you a love that is incomparable. And remember, you have God at Hello.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Love Dawn