I never remember a time when I wasn’t attracted to pretty girls, but the first time that I remember an intense crush was when I went to a pantomime in Cork when I was nine years’ old. The star had been Ireland’s representative in the Eurovision song contest for that year, 1971. Her name was Angela Farrell, and she played Cinderella. I was particularly spellbound by her eyes.
After that, I got lots of magical crushes on girls around my own age. I didn’t really date as a teenager. I met my wife as an adult. But it’s nice to have all that magic in the intervening years. I suppose it’s nature’s way of nudging you into taking an interest in the opposite sex. It’s odd that nature starts nudging you at such an early age.
But maybe it does so because it can take such a long time to find your soulmate. I’m reminded of the Natasha Beddingfield song 😀. And how many older people get magical crushes? I dunno. I remember, when I was 15, a teacher mentioned the sweet romantic feelings that teenagers get. I was a bit peeved to hear that.
I had a delightful crush on a girl at the time, and if my teacher was telling the truth, I wouldn’t have something so wonderful throughout my life. I sometimes think that romance is like a little taste of heaven. Ultimately crushes are more about your own feelings than the person you have the crush on. People speak of being in love with love. My most intense crushes would have been on girls that were way out of my league. I would have been so in awe of that I’d be scared to talk to them, let alone ask them out on a date.
I think of all the love songs with Heaven in the title. Examples include the following:
- Heaven must be missing an angel – Tavares
- I Found Heaven – Take That
- (Feels like) Heaven – Fiction Factory
- Heaven is a Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle
- Show Me Heaven – Maria McKee
- Too Much Heaven – The Bee Gees
- Heaven’s What I Feel – Gloria Estefan
There isn’t any marriage in Heaven. Jesus said, we’ll be like angels. That’s disappointing to hear when you’re young and in love, but the thing is, we’ll have something much better. These magical earthly feelings are only a foretaste of what’s to come. I think of a line from the hymn, Great is the Gospel:
Great is the mystery of godliness,
great is the work of God’s own holiness;
it moves my soul and causes me to long
for greater joys than to the earth belong
And romantic love is often used as a metaphor of God’s love for us, Christ in particular.
Isaiah 62:5
“As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”
2 Corinthians 11:2
“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
Revelation 19:7
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”
Revelation 21:2
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
Hibernia Gospel 