Romance never goes out of style. Tales of romance spring from every generation and culture. Through the ages, great love stories have captured the imaginations of millions, young and old, who yearn for the perfect relationship.

What is romance? The word Romance has several meanings. Modern usage centers on the tender affection shared between a man and a woman. But historically, the word romance incorporates a far broader meaning. In medieval times, Romance literature consisted of tales of chivalrous heroes told in epic poetry. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Romance literature became a fictitious narrative describing far away places and events. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the literary movement known as Romanticism grew to embody a vast assortment of novels and stories, often woven into historic contexts and exotic settings.

Most agree that Romance literature is a fictional dramatization of characters and stories that stir our passions and awaken our yearnings for those things which are beyond our ability to know or possess. Romance literature encompasses a broad variety of settings and themes. A runaway slave in search of freedom, an immigrant family passing through Ellis Island, a Sioux Indian boy coming of age in the era of westward expansion - all constitute romantic plots and themes. All are tales of individuals searching, yearning and striving for a better life.

The Holy Scriptures also manifest a romantic quality. They raise the standard of relationship and establish the ideal for living. Calling us upward, they cause us to yearn for that which we cannot fully possess in this earthly life. Yet while we cannot know God in His fullness, our passions can be stirred to pursue Him and to know Him in part.

In Eden, God crafted an intimate meeting place where He communed with Adam and Eve. And after the devil upset their perfect relationship, God did not cease His pursuit of relationship. In fact, the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is often referred to as the Divine Romance, the story of God and His beloved. He called Israel His Vineyard and He calls the Church His Bride.

The dramatic story of God and His people reads like a classic Romantic tale. In the Bible, like in all great stories, we can read about crises of faith, moral dilemmas, heinous sins, treachery, deceit, abject failures, difficult choices, and ultimately self-sacrifice. God's hand penned history's chapters. Each one points to the story's culminating moment - and in the broadest sense perhaps the most romantic moment in all of history - the moment when God died so His Church could live.

God has authored the most marvelous story ever written, setting the standard for all Romantic literature. Great stories by nature and design, whether intentional or not, follow His divine story outline. His romantic imprint is chiseled into the tablet of every human heart. And because true Romantic literature portrays the classic struggle between good and evil and the triumph which comes only through self-sacrifice, Romance never goes out of style.