There’s just something so sweet and endearing about 50 First Dates that I love to re-watch it every now and then. If you haven’t seen it yet, the main storyline is about a gal and a guy falling in love (nothing new there!) but the guy, played by Adam Sandler, has to repeatedly make Drew Barrymore fall in love with him every day. She has a memory issue, and every morning is a new beginning of a new life for her. I love how he gets to meet her for the first time, every day. Or how he makes her laugh in new ways, or gets many first kisses, or is easily forgiven because she has forgotten the dumb thing he did from the day before. This guy has to try so hard every day to make her fall in love with him.
The romantic in me thinks that’s sweet: to have someone in my life try so hard to get my attention and keep it, to be wanted and loved and admired, and sought after… (sigh)…makes a gal feel pretty loved, if only she could realize how hard the other is seeking her attentions, her reciprocal attentions. But then I started thinking, “Isn’t this exactly what God wants of us?! Doesn’t He try to extract my smile first thing in the morning, if only I open my eyes to His beautiful raspberry lemonade sunrise? Doesn’t he wait for the perfect opportunity to make His presence known to me? Doesn’t He wine and dine me, forgive me, give me a white-washed room each day to begin anew? Doesn’t God just wait for my consent to take me on a First Date with Him?”
Each morning when I wake and as I go about my daily life, there’s God waiting for me to acknowledge His presence, His attentions to love me and make me fall in love with Him. Every day can be a first date with God. Only He isn’t limited to the number 50.
