'Saturday Nights' & Jesus

I once heard on a radio station that you could correlate just about any love song to your relationship with Jesus.

Love songs are usually sad or happy and if you listen to the lyrics, they're usually talking about the feelings you are experiencing with someone you love, or the feelings you wish or miss feeling with someone you love(d). But those feelings, the ones we desire to give and receive, are already given to us everyday; all day long, from Jesus.

He loves us so much, we can't even understand it. He gives us all of the love and attention we could ever need- and only He can truly fill that lonely, empty feeling in our hearts. I was walking through my neighborhood listening to a playlist when Saturday Nights by Khalid came on, and as I walked, I envisioned my friend Jesus walking with me through the neighborhood telling me the things Khalid says in the chorus of his song, Saturday Nights.

All the things that I know,

that your parents don't

They don't care like I do

know well like I do

And all the things that I know

that your parents don't

They don't care like I do

Nowhere like I do

There's nothing like a parent's love for their children, and I know I won't fully understand that love until/unless God blesses me with a family of my own one day. I know my parents love me- and that I also don't understand how much they love me- and believe me when I say I have a special relationship with my parents.

Even being a quiet introvert my whole life, I still tell my parents most of the things on my mind. However, as I've gotten older, some dreams, wishes and prayers feel harder to share. Maybe it's a desire for independence, or not wanting my parents to be disappointed/confused with my dream plans. So some things stay in my mind between me and my journal.

Or so I thought.

Matthew's gospel reminds me that God knows everything about His children. He knows my past, present and future desires of my heart, my internal hardships, and the number of hairs on my head. My parents love me, but God loves me more. And while my parents love and care about me more than I'll ever understand (and I them), Jesus somehow loves and cares about me even more.

As I think beyond a parent's love and about what Khalid is interpreting, he's saying he knows and cares about a girl more than the her parents. And as I observe my friend's relationships, I watch some get married and others heartbroken. Obviously, I would rather see them all get married, but unfortunately that's not how it always works out.

I think the biggest lie both single and married people could believe is that their significant other can fulfill that hole in their heart that gives them joy, love, purpose, value and worth. Friends, God and God alone is the One who can fulfill that hole, permanently.

Man may make you feel good and fill that hole, but he/she can only do that temporarily. What happens when he doesn't text back because he's feeling tired and selfish; or when she gets distracted and stops listening? Suddenly either the hole gets bigger, or it loses some of its filling. But when we understand that, single or married, all of the love and attention we could ever need, in Heaven and on earth, comes from God, as well as that it's God who determines our worth, value and purpose, we won't put so much pressure and expectation into someone who, despite how much they love us, is still only human.

Don't believe me? Open the Bible. I recommend starting with Psalm 36:7, but if you keep reading, you'll find many many more verses where that comes from talking about God's love for us.

'How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!

People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.'

~Psalm 36:7