What is unrequited love? It is many, many different things. But generally it is one way love that cannot be reciprocated for a variety of reasons. From only one person having intense feelings for another and ranges to two people not able to be in a relationship as they already are in relationships. It is about the holding in, within, of very powerful emotions that cannot or are not permitted to be expressed, again for a variety of reasons. It is said that unrequited love is like having the emotions of separation and love at the same time and therefore can be very confusing. The extreme of this can end in suicide as it is a perceived one way love affair. Whether real or imagined; there are times when a person has strong romantic feelings toward someone, only to find out that they don't feel the same way. That is called unrequited love—love that is not returned or rewarded or reciprocated. It is a one-sided experience that can leave us feeling pain, grief, and shame. That's from a human perspective. Can we say that there is unrequited love from God's perspective to us or from us to God? Never from us to God as God always responds to our love. Always. But it is possible that God has a deep yearning to be in a deep relationship with us...but we either reject that love or may not even be aware of the deep love God has for us. Rom 5: 6-8 is a verse of God’s one way, unrequited love, for us, even if we did not know God. We rejected God, spurned God, but he never let us go. He never stopped his plan to send Himself 1 John 3: 16, to pay our eternal price for sin. As humans we are used to conditional love, love being reciprocated, and when we do not have this, it is unrequited love. It can be devastating. Yet God, in his amazing love, pours his love out on us, even when we were so far in darkness. He never stopped his one way love, until he brought us to a place, of saving us, and then and only then, could we reciprocate that love, by surrendering ourselves to Jesus. God saw us, floundering in our sin and filth Ezek 16: 6, 9-10 and lifted us up to a high place. What a joy and a privilege for us, to return that love and gratitude to the LORD for what he has done. Unrequited love to reciprocal love. Love that sustains us in all the battles of life, and love that will bring us home. This love is shown also in Lk 15: 11-31. May we be always active in showing love to those we do not know, but they need our help
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