Sight Unseen

I recently reconnected with some longtime friends that I had lost contact with for many years.  I had attended school with the son and Bible studies and church with the father.  In catching up with them, I started following the son's love story in meeting a Filipina woman whom he married a few weeks ago on his parents' anniversary.  I spoke to his father last weekend and asked about the son and his family and how long it would be before his bride could join him here in the U.S. (he had to leave her and return to the States after their honeymoon).  I am still waiting to hear the whole love story, and it will take up to three months before she can join her husband, but I loved what the father told me about when his son was preparing to travel to the Philippines to claim his bride.  When the son went to speak to his boss about getting a leave of absence from work, his boss said, "Now let me get this straight.  You have never met this woman in person or seen her face-to-face.  You have never touched her.  Yet you say you love her and are going to go marry her?  I don't understand...

My friend's reply to his boss still echoes in my head:  "Sir, I have told you that I am a born-again Christian.  I have never met Jesus Christ in person or seen him face-to-face.  I have never touched him.  But I love him and have given my life to him just the same."

I love the simplicity of his answer and of his faith in Christ.  It is so easy to rely on our senses for so many things in this world, but it takes a true leap of faith to believe that the God of the Universe is passionately pursuing us because he loves us unconditionally and wants a relationship with us, so much so that he sacrificed his one and only Son to restore the relationship. 

We love Him because He first loved us. ~1John 4:19