“I have a boyfriend, the sweetest of all. Not that He loves me. He is love, the most exquisite love, love of a kind that does not seek pleasure so much as to fill the beloved with joy. Since knowing this boyfriend, I too can only love. Whether I am caressed or hurt, I can only love. You love hatred now. I call upon you to love Love.”
("The Overcomers" - Richard Wurmbrand, p. 18)
This love is described even better by a tortured Romanian prisoner in solitary confinement:
From my bed of planks they will make my coffin. Stretched upon it, I try to find why my thoughts run to you, why my writings all turn toward you? Why is this passionate love in my soul, why does my song go only to you? I know I am rejected; soon I will putrefy in a tomb.
The bride of the Song of Songs did not love when she asked if You are “rightly loved.” Love is its own justification. Love is not for the wise. Through a thousand ordeals she will not cease to love. Though fire burns and waves drown her, she will kiss the hand that hurts. If she finds no answer to her questions she is confident and waits. One day the sun will shine in hidden places and all will be made plain.
Forgiveness of many sins only increased the prostitute’s burning love. But she gave perfume and shed tears before You said Your forgiving word. And had You not said it, still she would have sat and wept for the love she has toward You, even being in sin. She loved You before Your blood was shed. She loved You before You forgave. Neither do I ask if it is right to give You love. I do not love in hope of salvation. I would love You in everlasting misfortune. I would love You even in consuming fire…
("In God’s Underground" - Richard Wurmbrand, p. 70)
This poem was written by the founder of the Voice of the Martyrs during some of the darkest days of his 14 years in Communist prisons. What is it that these two suffering prisoners, along with many others like them, know that makes them love so madly? Or is it the Who that they know that makes them love so truly? We all know the One that they are talking about, and yes, I believe it is the Who that they know that fills their hearts with such ardent love.
Healing, forgiving, accepting, embracing, ruling, providing, creating, and reigning is the One that their hearts have completely fallen for. And taking their sins upon Himself as if they were His own to atone for, this One has captured their love by all that they have found Him to be.
These faithful saints have seen in Jesus Christ a goodness, and truth, and power, and love that surpasses anything they have ever known and fills them with such adoration that its expression comes out in a form of deep romanticism.
I would advise every reader to learn from these afflicted saints, stripped of all worldly comforts yet overflowing with consuming love, and cast off everything that hinders to seek and find this great Love to their soul’s satisfaction.
