Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
- Mark 10:21
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
- John 14:23-24
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
- 1 John 3:16
“Will I ever find the boy on my mind?
The one who is my ideal
Maybe he’s a dream and yet he might be
Just around the corner waiting for me
Will I recognize the light in his eyes
That no other eyes reveal
Or will I pass him by and never even know
That he is my ideal”
- Leo Robin and Richard A. Whiting, My Ideal
When Frank Sinatra recorded this song, “boy” was changed to “girl” along with appropriate pronouns. But in its state above, it comes close to being our search for Christ. I would say “man” instead of “boy.”
When I heard this song not long ago, I immediately gravitated to Plato’s Theory of Forms where there is an Ideal form of each thing on earth. In accepting that premise, Jesus would be that form for humankind.
But for an ideal person who will love you as much as you love them, the only sure “ideal” would be Jesus. While my wife was my soulmate for nearly fifty years, she had her faults. She was nearly perfect in my book, but not all the way there. And she expressed her disappointment in me at times. The sad thing was that her character was such that she rolled with the punches most of the time instead of saying, “This is embarrassing. Please, clean up your act.” When she got to that point, and rarely ever did, I was probably irritating her to no end without her complaining.
But we were soulmates. Yet, the “ideal” soulmate is not one who gets sick and stays sick for a couple of decades, only getting severely sick in the last five years.
But Jesus never changes. Jesus is always there. Jesus never lets us down. Jesus loves us.
Yet, in our search for our ideal, is it possible that Jesus could walk right by us and we don’t recognize Him? Absolutely.
Jesus is right there. Will you recognize the light in His eyes? Or will you pass Him by, never knowing that He was your ideal?
The choice is ours. Each of us must make that choice. And if you are still breathing, you can still turn to Him, no matter what you have done up until right now.
Here is Margaret Whiting singing My Ideal. Why not? One of the composers was her father.
Jesus is the Ideal. Reach out. He is ready to gather you into his arms for the best bear hug ever.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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