We have been talking about the movie The Natural recently, but now I’m going to dive in more deeply.

Again, I hope you’ve had a chance to download and read my piece from an unpublished manuscript that discusses this movie. If not, you can download it below.

In the New Testament, God talks of His love for humanity as a father, and also expresses that love through His Son. In the Old Testament, He is certainly a father, but He more frequently talks of his love for His people Israel as a lover. He is their bridegroom, and they are His bride. And it is passionate, in good times, but also in bad.

Funny, is it not, how we fail to recognize that everything precious in this life originates with God? He designed everything, did He not? Is there anything His hand did not touch?

And even worse, by default, we may even give ourselves credit for many things. I don’t know about you, but when I was whisked away by romance in the past, I completely gave myself and someone else the credit for it. It never occurred to me that God placed all these feelings deep in my heart, the capacity to feel such things, and He is only reason I have ever felt any of this. Our earthly romantic love is incredibly important, the greatest blessing this earthly life has to offer -- but it was also given to us by God to point the way back to Him.

Think about that for a moment, and more. Everything incredible in this life, everything beautiful we have ever experienced, all of it, is only possible because God gave us these things. He “programmed” us to feel, think and value everything we do. He chose to make us “like” Himself.

In the Old Testament when Israel betrays God and forgets Him, He tells her she has been like a harlot who runs away to her other lovers. This is such a horrible and disgusting image . . . but think about it.

Great disappointment is only great because our desire, our good desire, has also been great. God is only hurt as much as He is by Israel’s unfaithfulness because His love for Israel is also that great. Disappointment is only as devastating as it is because that which has been lost is such a treasure.

I’m babysitting this week for my two grandkids here in town while their parents are on vacation. Violet is ten, in fourth grade, and her first ever school dance is tonight. Or, I should say . . . was tonight. The kids can only go with an adult chaperone, one for each kid (don’t ask me, I didn’t make the rules). She was going to go with one of her good friends, her parents were both going, so they both could go. I need to stay at home with her brother, Jonah. We just heard last night that her friend’s mother came down with Covid, so that’s that. Violet learned about this last night just before bed. She was inconsolable.

So, we will try to do something extra special this afternoon and tonight, maybe even have a little dance of our own. And I am actually looking forward to it, it will be a fun. But it will never be able to replace the “real thing” for Violet. It would be very hard if not impossible to replace that for her. Her very first dance. Wow, how disappointing. Again, only because that which was so exciting . . . was lost.

In The Natural when Iris comes to see Roy play after sixteen years of not hearing the first word from him, of being completely abandoned by him, he has no idea she is in the stands. As a middle-aged man who just finally got into the big leagues, he is one of the greatest hitters of all time. But he has been in a terrible slump. As he comes to the plate, he senses something, but knows not what. He looks around, scans the stands, more than once; but sees nothing. Somehow her love for him is so great, he can actually feel her presence.

Better said, and more to the point, Roy had not felt Iris’ presence in sixteen years. He has tried to live life without her, to make up for the greatest loss possible with other things. And the contrast between these two things – deep, pure, romantic love and . . . anything else, is so striking, that Roy can actually feel it in the air. I could just say more, but pictures convey so much more.

Please watch this link from YouTube of this scene, it is only a little over two minutes long. It is very appropriately entitled, “The lady in white.”