Reading the “Dear Abby” advice column is like rubbernecking when I pass a car wreck. I simultaneously want and don’t want to see it. More often than not, the column makes me feel like civilization is surely coming to an end, but occasionally, it also provides a few chuckles.
Such was the case recently when I read a letter written to “Abby” by a 66-year-old single woman who began with, “I recently met the man of my dreams on a dating app.” I could expound on the improbability of that ever happening, but I won’t because it’s what comes next in her letter that I found even stranger.
“However, there’s one thing I’m having trouble with,” she continued. “We are the same age, and the attraction is mutual … but he has no upper teeth. He lost his false teeth. His bottom teeth are rotten, and he has no intention of replacing them.”
Needless to say, “Some Enchanted Evening” didn’t pop into my mind whilst reading that. You know, the romantic song from the musical, “South Pacific,” that begins like this: “Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger; you may see a stranger across a crowded room. And somehow you know … .
I’m probably exposing my superficiality, but I’m having trouble imagining how this dentally challenged chap could be the man of any woman’s dreams. Does he have an especially delightful personality? Is she desperate? Or can love truly be that blind?
In our more honest moments, most of us long-married folk wonder why our spouses love us and suspect they are at least a little blind. But here’s an even greater mystery: Why on earth does God love us so passionately and fiercely?
The psalmist David evidently wondered, too, writing, “When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor (Psalm 8:3-5).”
We didn’t just have rotten teeth—we had rotten souls, corrupted by sin. And yet, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”
And, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).”
The lady who wrote to “Dear Abby” said she’d be willing to buy her dream man some dentures, but because she doesn’t know how to bring up that touchy subject, she decided not to see him anymore. Instead, she just wants to stay in touch via texting. Turns out human love may not be so blind after all.
I believe only God is capable of purely unconditional love, but we do have a part to play if the “divine romance” He desires with us is to have a happy ending. That part is to receive His love and respond in faith to the eternal salvation He offers.
That song I mentioned—“Some Enchanted Evening”—also includes these lyrics: “When you hear her call you across a crowded room, then fly to her side and make her your own.”
That’s actually a pretty good picture, I think, of what God does. He loves. He waits. And if we respond and call to Him, He flies to our side and makes us His own.
Thankfully, God isn’t as superficial as I am. He doesn’t care about our teeth, just our heart. And if we give that to Him, we discover that His really is the love of our dreams.