The Search is Over

When I’m really into something, I sort of go overboard.  I’ll buy two…or more.  I’ll buy one before I’m even finished with the first one.  I’ll tell people about it.  I’ll recommend the thing.  I’ll put it in my Facebook status.

When I’m really into someone, and this can happen in other non-romantic relationships, I sort of go overboard too.  I’ll send notes.  Buy presents.  Think about them.  Talk kindly about them to other people.  Pray for them.  And, thinking of the few actual romantic relationships I’ve had, I maybe obsessed over each one of them.  Even the non-relationships…the one-way crushes.  Obsessed.

I’m not sure I know how to handle myself in a healthy way when I really like something.  If it’s a thing, I just might discover I’ve stumbled upon a new idol.  And if it’s a person, I’m just needy enough to try to win the affection of said person with a variety of means, trying to ensure that he or she likes me as much as I like them.

But there is a model of healthy relationship that lifts our eyes about the norm, and Christmastime is the perfect time to meditate on such things.  Because the ultimate sacrificial pursuer of our hearts is God when He decided to send His sweet Son to us as a baby…to dwell among us…to teach us how to live and love…to show us a new way…to take on our sin so we wouldn’t have to pay the price.

God is and was just that into us that He went overboard.  And yet, it wasn’t too much or too little.  It wasn’t out of His neediness, it was out of ours.  It wasn’t because He was trying to win our affection in an unhealthy way but because we needed His affection and He knew it, so He offered it.  By giving us His life in exchange for ours.

Christmas is a beautiful thing, for so, so many reasons.  But one of my favorites is because I am able to remind myself that no matter how much I strive to find the perfect thing or the perfect person, it’s all already been accomplished for me.  He’s right there, right in front of me, arms outstretched, calling me to Himself.  And this Christmas, I am choosing to cease the striving and rest in what I’ve already got…a Perfect Love that rescues me, restores me, pursues me, and fills up every single deep longing.  He’s just that into me.  And He’s just that into you.

A great Christmas gift: Elisabeth’s new book, He Is Just That Into You! It can be purchased at https://www.winepressbooks.com/product.asp?pid=2634&search=He+is+just+that+into+you&select=Keywords&ss=1.

And check out the book trailer video here: http://www.vimeo.com/7093233.  Pass it along!

Elisabeth K. Corcoran, 2009

Elisabeth lives her with husband and children in Illinois.  She is the author of the devotionals, In Search of Calm: Renewal for a Mother’s Heart (Xulon), Calm in My Chaos: Encouragement for a Mom’s Weary Soul (Kregel), and is excited to announce the release of He Is Just That Into You: Stories of a Faithful God who Pursues, Engages, and Has No Fear of Commitment (WinePress). You can learn more about Elisabeth at www.elisabethcorcoran.com or at http://elisabethcorcoran.blogspot.com/, and you can follow her on Twitter at ekcorcoran or friend her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Elisabeth-Klein-Corcoran/1301703500.