Flowers, Love, and Tangeaunts

I'm currently at my dad's house visiting for the weekend. Festivities are to include a trip to the pumpkin patch at Bates Nut Farm and making pumpkin soup from scratch - both are traditions for me. At any rate, "my room" has been converted into a sort of guest room and it's been interesting looking at the additions to the decor. One such item that has caught my eye is a picture of my half-sister with my step-aunt in a frame that reads, "Aunts are like flowers...they brighten up your day."

Alright. I think it's kinda cute - but mostly super cheesy. And I've been thinking of my own:
"Aunts are like flowers...they all smell good." Ooh - awkward, and not always true. Heh.
"Aunts are like flowers...some are just more colorful than others." hehehehehe
"Aunts are like flowers...the real ones are better than the fake."

(I came up with others, but they were a little strange or didn't necessarily make sense - basically, I don't want to share them.)

The last one got me thinking though...
I remember once reading a bumper sticker thing that read, "He sent her a dozen roses and within them was one fake rose. Attached was a note saying 'I'll love you until the last flower dies.'"
Alright, so my initial response is, "Awww - sweet!" *Gag*

I feel torn because while one side of me thinks about how such a description of love is immature...maybe there's more the idea than initially meets the eye. I have to admit, that there is a certain draw for me in the idea.

In this cynical world and our jaded society, it's difficult to imagine any sort of "love" actually lasting. Fairy tale love doesn't exist...and yet, we wish so much that it did.

How nice to realize that it actually does.

The problem concerning the love story surrounding the roses is that not only is it based in fantasy, it is also an act generally made prematurely. It's something that high school kids do for one another, or sweethearts who haven't been dating for long enough. It goes right along with the version of love sold to us by Hollywood - love isn't about sacrifice, making active decisions that put another person's best interest before our own, or choosing to act in love even when what we feel most like doing is turning around and walking the other way! No, love is about flowers, and hearts, and kissing, and doing what feels good.

Personally, I think the story is more fitting for the couple who's been married 20 years, just had a huge fight, and has their marriage on the rocks. He buys her a bouquet and pledges to remain with her - a renewal of vows.
Not a hormonally scripted line that will ensure a score with the immature teenagers.

But I digress...
The point is that at the root of such a desire for romance is the truth that such love actually does exist. We are wired to respond to the idea of an eternally lasting love. We know that it's real - we just have a hard time discovering where it is or how to go about finding it. How funny that there is a huge book describing this very love that we all seek after - and yet we still miss it. Sometimes (more often than not), I miss it. I'm only human after all.

So, where or what is the source of this mysteriously obvious love?
Well - God of course. How wonderful that a God who claims to be eternal also claims to be love incarnate.

What it comes down to then, is that the God who made the flowers and the pumpkins of the field also created a love so holy and sweet that we would all recognize the desire in our souls for it.