It's Friday night, date night. Out of every night during the week this is the one that you and your wife have set aside to have a special evening each week. Sure all the time with your wife is special but sometimes, when you come back late from work, cook the meal, take out the rubbish, clean the dishes, do any work for work tomorrow and whatever else you need to do that evening, it can feel quiet stressful. But not this night, oh no, this night you have set agreed to set aside to be with each other and just enjoy one another’s company in whatever way you choose that week.
As you tred the well worth path back home you start to think back to when you agreed to start date night, how other people had told you that setting some time aside to spend with each other was important, how it had benefited their relationships and how it had helped them work through some very hard times, even when they were going through rough patches. At first you had found date night easy, even when you had a lot of work on or you were tired, just the mere thought of date night just managed to lift your spirit.
Recently things had been different though, years had passed since the early days and thinking back all the different date nights seamed to merge into one, Work was getting hard, the kids demanded so much time and it was always a struggle to find a babysitter. Of course you still love your wife, more than ever, it's just. Sometimes you wonder what else you will find out about your wife on this night, or what difference having a meal in a restaurant would be to having a meal at home. Surely you'd both be more relaxed if you didn't have to ring round to find a babysitter and both got to do all the tasks you needed to do. Maybe just this once...we should cancel date night, after all we've done it in the past.
You pull out your phone to ring your wife and start to punch in the number on the keypad when a text arrives. As you open it up the screen and peeking on the screen you see her name. What could it be? Is there a problem with the kids? Is she okay?
“Hi honey. Can't wait to see you tonight, I know how hard these date nights can be but I can't wait to spend time with you. X”
The sudden realisation strikes you in the stomach like the sucker punch you received in primary school from the bully. She had been looking forward to it all day...and there I was going to cancel on her because of how I felt...I didn't even think about how she might have been feeling...What about all the other times we cancelled date night?
She has just finished cooking the kids meal and hears the door bell ring. Why is someone calling at this time of night? Perhaps it's one of those annoying religious groups again. She goes to the door and with curiosity opens the door. There you are, flowers in one hand, and an open hand in invitation to come with you in the other. Why didn't you just open the door? She says with justified bemusement and intrepidation as to what your answer will be. “well the flowers are pretty big plus it's date night, I can't ask you out on a date if I open the door now can I. I know how much date night means to you and I wanted to make It celebrate it properly rather than just go through the motions.”
Sometimes our spiritual lives with God can be just like this. We know that spending time with the one with love is good and will be good in the long run but things get in the way, we just want to relax or have to much work and so missing spending some time with him isn't a big deal, and it kind of isn't. He, like a great partner, loves us and if we had cancelled our “date night” he would have understood as he wants what is best for us. However we sometimes forget what it may mean for him. HE LOVES US, he loves to spend time with us! How absolutely crazy is that. The creator of the whole universe [from the largest of star system to the smallest of particle] Loves each person and wants to spend time with us.
Stranger still if we don't spend time with him, he isn't mad, he just wants us to spend time with him. This is grace and it is the most amazing thing ever.
