My Romance
By Karen Sue Hale (Susie)
Susie - I have a loving husband, who is always there for me
and loves me unconditionally. He is
exciting and adventurous, but tender hearted as well. He has taken me places I
never dreamed I would go…England, Holland, Belgium, France, Wales, and
Russia! Every day with him is truly
sweeter than the day before.
Jesus – I am with Susie always, even to the end of the
world. (Matthew 28:20b)
How We Met
Susie - I first began to notice him when I was a small
child. On his birthday my parents would
give me a huge orange, the largest apple of the year, and an assortment of nuts
and candy. I’m sure they were praying even then that I would someday give my
heart to him. My sisters became close to him, but I was still young; and when they
asked me if I wanted to do the same thing, I replied, “No, you have to talk to
the preacher to get close to him!” I was
afraid of our 300-pound preacher!
Jesus – I created Susie’s inmost being; I knit her together
in her mother’s womb…She is fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:13-14a)
How He Courted Me
Susie - But my Love began wooing me, usually through his
love songs. I remember at a Church of
the Nazarene summer camp, he sang sweetly to me through the lyrics “Amazing
love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” I thought I knew him because he was a close
friend of the family and we went to his house every week. As a fifth grader, I
didn’t quite understand that I needed to know him one on one, just the two of
us.
Jesus – I take great delight in Susie, I will quiet her
with my love, I will rejoice over her with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17b)
Susie - All this time I was active in church. In fact I grew to be a leader in my youth
group and was considered a “really good girl”.
At camp, the summer after my freshman year in high school, we listened
to a musical called “Real”. The opening
lines of the first song were, “Empty eyes stare from empty sockets, frozen lips
form frozen words. Masks that hide faceless people, acting roles with lines
unheard. Row on row we march in order, mouthing hymns and reading
prayers…” I realized the song was about
me. I played church well, and knew a lot
about Jesus, but I didn’t really know
Jesus.
Jesus - My Father
was drawing Susie to me. (John 6:44)
How He Proposed
Susie - He continued to draw me to him that summer through
the testimony of friends and a hellfire- and-brimstone preacher during a
revival. But it was finally his quiet, loving, insistent voice in my mind that
caused me to ask my youth minister, Ray, to introduce us formally and help me
to be sure that I would be his and he would be mine forever. Jesus proposed to
me by having Ray read through the scriptures of the “Roman Road to Salvation.”
That night Christ became my first love, and later in the service, Ray and I
sang a duet of one of Christ’s love songs, “The Savior is Waiting.” I did not
know the full meaning of the church being the bride of Christ or the fact the
he is a “husband to the husbandless,” but I began learning.
Our Covenant Relationship
Susie: I
loved Jesus and served him actively during my youth. Then I met and married Steve, not as quickly
as that makes it sound. We were engaged five and a half years. During our
engagement the church we attended suffered a split; and as people who are not
as grounded in the Word as they need to be often do, we drifted out of
fellowship with other believers. Five
days before our first wedding anniversary, Steve left me. I was 23 years old and devastated.
That night I had an intense discussion with
Jesus. Honestly, I yelled, “I did it all
your way. I don’t drink, smoke, or do
drugs. I’m modest and moral. I married a
man that went to church with me. I was a virgin bride! So where are you?” He answered quietly and lovingly just like on
the night he proposed, “I’ve always been here.
It’s you who have been ignoring me, but I still love you.”
On the Sunday that should have been my
first wedding anniversary, I went to church for the first time in a long
time. Jesus arranged to have the pastor
preach on reconciliation, and I went forward to reconcile with my first love. A
loving singles group and Sunday school teacher began to teach me that daily,
quiet, and time went together to form a phrase.
Over the next several years I became more and more intimate with Jesus
through daily reading his word, through listening to godly teachers, through
prayer, and as always through worshipping him in song.
It was a number of years before I could
express the love Jesus showed me during our reconciliation. My feelings finally emerged as a love song
called, “I Am His Treasure” which begins:
When I felt
rejected, abandoned, and unloved,
I felt like
someone’s garbage on the curb out by the street.
Then Jesus
picked me up, held me in his arms,
And whispered
that he’d always treasure me.
Susie - My relationship with my first love has not always
been easy. He has led me into difficult
circumstances many times, and I often want to question his motives. However, I
must admit he never leaves my side during those hard times.
Jesus – I cover Susie with my feathers, and under my wings
she finds refuge; my faithfulness will be her shield and rampart. (Psalm 91:4)
Susie - I’ve had many times that I longed for God to send
me a human husband, but I have learned to be content with singleness and
deepening my relationship with Christ. During one of those seasons that I was
struggling with my singleness and childlessness, I was asked to lead worship at
a singles’ retreat. The theme of the
weekend was Complete in Christ. While preparing, I cried out to the Lord,
“Jesus, how can I possibly lead worship on this theme when I am feeling so
desperate for human affection right now? I don’t know how you’re going to do
it, but somehow you’re going to show me how you are better than a husband.”
Immediately, I picked up my guitar and
wrote Faithful. The words and music just
flowed together incredibly easily, and I knew it was my true love answering my
plea for help.
You are
faithful,
every moment
of every hour
of every single day.
You are near
me, right beside me,
never leaving; You will never stray.
For Your love
is perfect.
Your love is
true.
No one else
could ever love me
the way that
You do!
So I will
trust You, true submission,
complete surrender, I give to You my all.
Lead me;
guide me.
Show me how I best can serve You.
I’m listening for Your call.
For Your love
is perfect.
Your love is
true.
No one else
could ever love me
the way that
You do!
Susie - “Your love, O LORD , reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness
to the skies.” (Psalm 36:5) I will “sing to him a new song; play skillfully,
and shout for joy. For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful
in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of
his unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:3-5)
Susie – I look forward to spending eternity with my True
Love because he loves me with an everlasting love. I am so thankful that he
courted me and that once I gave my heart to him, he has never let me go.
Jesus – Susie listened to my voice and followed me. I give
her eternal life, and she will never perish; no one can snatch her out of my
hand. (John 10:27-28)
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