Infatuation?

...But we loved with a love that was more than love -

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we -

Of many far wiser than we -

And neither angels in heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE:

The above excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe's poem Annabel Lee are strongly reflective of the text in Song of Solomon's which reads,

For love is as strong as death,

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol;

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

The very flame of the LORD.

Many waters cannot quench love,

Nor will rivers overflow it;

(Song of Solomon 8:6-7)

Strange but even the waters which drowned Annabel Lee could not quench the love of the author. Sometimes we attribute too much sentimentality to "love poems" but sometimes those burning sensations, that passionate heat which consumes a young lover can be indicative of the very flame of the LORD. Again I recall C.S. Lewis who wrote,

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory)

Dangerously I propose that our affections must be elevated to a level of greater infatuation. Yes, that's right infatuation. It sounds so very wrong, and perhaps it is in many cases, but at the same time we must learn to surrender ourselves wholly and madly to desiring God's presence. That His house be our dwelling place, and that whenever far from it we be horribly disappointed. So can this same infatuation be translated to a human plane? Is it possible for a man to grow so easily enamoured with someone that he be infatuated and it not be a mortal sin? Often enough I think we try to box the idea of love into precisely that - an idea. It's not just an idea or abstract concept. It must be a palpitating reality, burning its way into our hearts. Naturally our infatuation must be God first and foremost, after all He must be preeminent. But I do believe that we, as Christians, have made love between humans (particularly between the sexes) into a very half-hearted duty.