Excerpt from “Sacred Romance” by Brent
Curtis and John Eldridge:
Mary
is a good friend of mine who lost her permanent front teeth through an accident
in early adolescence. Years later, she struggled to finally resolve the issue
with dental caps. What should have been a simple procedure took weeks, then
months. Appointment after appointment, the caps were either the wrong color,
the wrong shape, or the wrong size. When she finally did get a pair that she
could live with, the glue didn’t hold. Where was the Sacred Romance in such a
mundane and yet withering struggle? Why didn’t God ride in as hero and provide
a beautiful set of caps? Wouldn’t that have been the loving thing to do? As the
ordeal continued, a major issue of her heart surfaced. Mary’s teeth had long
been for her a symbol of her struggle with the question of her inner beauty.
Her teeth were a source of shameful arrows lodged deep. A seemingly irrelevant
nit that God refused to take away became an opportunity to face a fundamental question
the heart of every woman asks: Am I lovely? Without the nit, the deeper issue
of her heart would never have come up. Once it did, the real battle began.
…Thankfully,
her True Love was persistent in his pursuit of her heart, refusing to let her
take the easy way out. The question of her inner beauty broke to the surface
one day, and, fortunately, a friend with eyes for the Romance was there to help
her see what was at stake. Once Mary finally turned and faced the core issue,
God was able to speak words of loving reassurance: “you are lovely, Mary, and I
want you to offer your inner beauty, your womanly heart to the world.” Through
a seemingly insignificant and unspiritual issue like dental caps, God spoke
healing to Mary’s heart and invited her up into the Sacred Romance.
After reading this I immediately thought of
my eyes.
Since the 4th grade, I have been
wearing glasses and/or contacts. Over the years my eyes have continued to get
worse and now, without aid, I can only see clearly roughly 2 or 3 inches in
front of my face. In my adult life, there have been mornings that I have woken
up in tears because I cannot see. Lying in bed praying, hoping that one-day,
somehow, I would be able to open my eyes and see clearly.
As I was reading I thought, ‘what if my
frustration with my physical eyes is a reflection of my frustration with my
spiritual eyes.’ Immediately following this thought I was reminded of something
my squad-mate Joshua told me at launch (the 1st 3 days of The World
Race); he said, “Open your eyes. Spiritually.” He didn’t have any explanation
or anything more than that, so I said, “Um, ok,” not knowing exactly what to do
with that. Maybe this is what God was doing with it. Maybe God is using this
“seemingly insignificant and unspiritual issue” to heal my heart and invite me
“up into the Sacred Romance.”
We all have wounds and God wants nothing
more than to be invited into those places so that He can heal them. I hope that
one day, somehow, God will heal my eyes; but right now, He wants to heal my
heart and open my spiritual eyes.
Many Blessings,
Kim
