The Bible, J.R.R. Tolkien And The Meaning Of LifeНамуна

A Love Story 

We all enjoy a good love story. I think that the reason we like good love stories is that love reveals our deepest longings. What is love? What do we mean when we say we have stopped loving a person? I have enjoyed asking these questions to myself and many young people. The answers have always been sincere but not always clear. Most answers have revolved around the feeling of being in love and the struggle of that feeling disappearing. 

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a group of young people reflecting on divorce. Though divorce might be tough for most people, they felt that, maybe, it is ok to move on if there is no love in the marriage. Out of sheer curiosity, I asked, what if we heard of someone who remained faithful and caring to their spouse despite any feelings. One of them remarked, “He would be a great lover! Now, that I have said it I find it strange.”

I then wondered if things would be different if we were exposed to love stories that involved courage, adventure and a preoccupation with the other rather than with oneself. Honourable love stories have been shelved because they were cliché, only to be replaced with other substandard clichéd stories that killed the adventure in romance. 

Love is an adventure where the individual is pre-occupied with the other rather than with themselves. In Genesis 2:23 we are reminded that our lives together must result in that picture of interdependence. Similarly, in the story of Beren and Luthien, their lives are intertwined; Beren undertakes a perilous challenge because of Luthien and Luthien leaves the confines of her palace to save Beren from the consequences of that undertaking. 

He, an honourable mortal was willing to risk his life only to be with Luthien. She, a virtuous Elvish princess was willing to accept mortality and even contest evil in order to rescue her lover. 

As the story unfolds you will sense their longing to be in the other’s presence. To share in each other’s fate even if it seems hopeless. To give up happiness just to be with one another. Similarly, Romans 12:9-12 offers us a good model for marriage; we should detest evil, show affection to one another, out do one another in honour, rejoice in hope and be patient in affliction.