It smacked me in the face the second hour into traveling on a bus across Malaysia.
“You’re a hopeless romantic, aren’t you?”
I’m not sure how my friend came to this conclusion or what we were even discussing for this to be brought up, but as the inference tumbled from his mouth, I became defensive.
What! No I am NOT! What is a hopeless romantic anyway?? Well, whatever, doesn’t matter. I’m not one!
A quick google search told me it is a person who sees with rose-colored glasses and loves love. Which in all honesty, is probably me.
Yupp, it’s me.
The next two months of my Race I pondered the idea of being a hopeless romantic and what it actually meant for myself and others. At the true root of it all, I found the deep need of fulfillment.
Fulfillment.
Now that’s a word I can relate to.
You see, I have 23 years under my belt of seeking fulfillment in material items, ideas, and people who could never satisfy this part of my heart. I guess you can say I am sort of a professional.
By this Laura Berg Dictionary definition of “hopeless romantic”, I daresay we are all hopeless romantics.
We are all seeking after something or someone to find fulfillment, whether we realize it or not.
My personal realization began month 8 of my Race when I stopped trying and, instead, allowed myself to encounter fulfillment. True, deep, unshakable fulfillment found not in anything here on Earth, but in God meeting me on Earth.
Our first day in Cambodia, I woke up feeling profound sorrow over all the venues I was using to fill myself. Performance, food, affirmation, knowledge… The list was endless. In an intimate moment of sobbing on a balcony at 6:40 a.m., the Lover of my Soul sat down next to me and asked me if He could pursue me.
I said yes.
And He did.
“Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty. The water that I will give him will become in him a well of life that lasts forever.”
John 4:14 (NLV)
Fulfillment.
We are all seeking it.
With Christmas going full-force right now, this has never been clearer to me.
Romantic Christmas movies plaguing Netflix and mounds of delicately wrapped presents under the tree. Peppermint candles wafting through the air and warm homemade treats providing temptation from the kitchen counter. Christmas just oozes hopeless romantic feelings.
But I am discovering this year, no fulfillment can come from this holiday.
Instead, fulfillment came in the form of a fragile baby.
God saw us in our loneliness, in our strife, in our worst of times and decided to meet us personally through the human flesh of Jesus.
“…and they shall call his name Immanual’ (which means God with us).” Matthew 1:23 (ESV)
Two thousand plus years ago the One who wants to capture your heart humbled Himself to meet us here on Earth.
In the lowest of places, He took his first breath of air, was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and then laid in an animal feeding trough.
With the first beat of his heart and the first cry from his lungs, He began the fulfillment of the law.
He began the fulfillment of the insatiable parts of our souls.
Christmas will always be my favorite holiday.
I still get excited to see wrapped presents hidden behind twinkling lights and tree branches.
Heck, I will always belt out with passion Michael Buble’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” in my car.
Because, truly, I witness beauty in the celebration of our Fulfillment coming to earth.
And I witness beauty in Christmas being for not so hopeless romantics like me and you.
