On the spiritual level, we should rejoice in the fact that Jesus sees us as perfect in God’s sight despite our flaws. Yes, we see our own flaws and we feel our sins and limitations and history so deeply. God is also aware of our sin; after all, He sent Jesus to die for us to save us from it! God is not blind to our shortcomings like those newly in love are. Yet our sins are covered by the finished work of Jesus. Once we have trusted in Jesus, we are whiter than snow (Ps 51:7).

When you are early on in a romantic relationship, everything about the one you love is fantastic. You cannot find a flaw. They appear perfect to you in every way. Their laugh, their mannerisms, their jokes, everything is just ideal in your eyes. This is what it meant by the phrase “love is blind”. Driven by love, you only see the good and you cannot see the bad.

Of course, the other person is not entirely good; no-one is even close! They will have physical flaws, particular temptations, personality issues and a history. If you remain together, you will come to see some of these problems. That laugh that was so endearing might come to grate on you; that little mannerism that was written off as cute might be identified as actually being selfish or rude. We only see the reality over time.

We see this in Song of Songs as well. The woman notes in chapter 1 that her skin was darker than most women because she worked outside in the vineyard (1:6). In a culture that valued light skin, she would not be seen by most as conventionally beautiful. Yet when her man looks at her, all he sees is beauty. She is the “most beautiful amongst women” (1:8). He looks at her and sees only the good.

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