I'm home watching hallmark movies and there it is once again. It’s crystal clear.  Everyone can see it but the main character - it’s LOVE. Yes, “true love” stares her in the face in its most perfect form. It's considerate, helpful, patient, loyal, slow to anger and all around gracious. True love is standing there waiting for this longing-for-love individual to open her heart and trust him.

While I love these movies, I get so impatient waiting for the main character to open her eyes and see True love for who he really is.  Come on girlfriend, don't be so apprehensive, so jaded about True Love. How can this witty, successful character be so sagacious in life and so clueless and even resistant in the matter of her own heart.

Fortunately, the movie is not over. Somehow true love knows her better than she knows herself.  He devises a plan to get the main character to see him for who he really is.  In a romantically grand gesture True Love shows the main character who he is. Suddenly, her eyes are opened and she finally falls for True Love.

That storyline bears a striking resemblance to our own come to Jesus moment. Many of us were reluctant even recalcitrant about getting involved with our saviour. We use all of the same excuses from those hallmark movie to avoid Jesus. "I mean Jesus is perfect and I'm not looking for anything serious."  We think, "I know if I get involved with him, I'll have to change my life and I’m comfortable where I'm at."  Plus, "Jesus is going to change who I am and I need somebody to love me, for me." In the movie, it seems so simple, take the leap. Go for love. In life, sometimes we just cannot see the blessing that awaits an open heart.

In the book of Acts 9, God introduces himself to someone who is completely uninterested in a relationship with Jesus.  He absolutely hates Jesus. Yet, Jesus cares about him so much that he reveals himself to the man. The man is literally stopped dead in his tracks and faces the loving voice of the son of God.  As if the death on the cross followed by the resurrection wasn't a strong enough demonstration of Jesus’ love, Jesus had to go a step further to draw this child of his closer to him. 

Jesus speaks to Saul from the right-hand of the father.  Jesus stoops down a second time from his royal throne to speak to Saul. Conversation with Jesus was not enough to stir Saul's heart. Jesus does something radical.  For 3 days Saul cannot see. 3 days! That's the amount of time it took Jesus to die and raise from the dead. In 3 days Saul, sat in his blindness and in that time he began to see. He could not see physically but he began to see spiritually. 

Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Acts 9:8‭-‬9 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/act.9.8-9.ESV

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;
Acts 9:17‭-‬18 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/act.9.17-18.ESV

Often I can feel stuck in a rut where things are not changing.  I want to have great vision but something bigger is blocking the view. It's me in the way. My opened eyes cannot see God because I'm fixated on my own agenda. I'm the longing-for-love character with recalcitrant ways. My True love is a saviour who single-handedly saved the whole world. He is saying "come follow me!" I need that time in the bible to wake me up and say c’mon girlfriend, feast your eyes on True Love!

True Love is right here waiting for you to close your eyes and open your heart. The closer you get to Jesus the better your sight.  How close do you have to be to see and believe?

John 20:25-29

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”