The Fragility of Human Love And Our Perfect Security
THE FRAGILITY OF HUMAN LOVE AND OUR PERFECT SECURITY
To whom we should rest our perfect security ?
Only in God's love we could rest our perfect security, for only God's love is everlasting and unfailing. Only God can love with an everlasting love for he is the only "eternal one." We can never rest our confidence and security upon human love for human love is too fragile. Those who put their confidence upon human love were among those who have been broken by it the most. We should never rest our security upon human relationships , upon earthly love affairs, for they are bound to fail us.
Human relationships are too frail, those who build their world around it , those who consider their lovelife as the center of their life, were among those deeply hurted by it.
Even the most beautiful and most affluent people are not exempted from the heartaches brought by an earthly romance. Let me share with you this story of a very beautiful woman who have once found love as the most beautiful thing in the world but in the end, it brought her uncomparable miseries and pain. This is a story of Soraya Esfandiary, former wife of the Shah of Iran.
There were two moments that will remain unforgettable in the life of Soraya Esfandiary.One was when she stood by the side of his Imperial Majesty the Shah of Iran at the age of eighteen and became his Empress. The other was the day she stood on the steps of a plane taking her to Europe and out of his life forever.
The story of Queen Soraya and the Shah is one of the loneliest love story in modern history. Soraya is a strikingly beautiful woman who was a daughter of an Iranian diplomat and a German mother. One day in 1950, the Shah saw some fuzzy snapshots of Soraya taken in St. Moritz. They were sufficient to rouse his interest.. The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was now thirty-one years of age,very handsome, a fine sportsman and fabulously rich, but he has an unhappy life. His first marriage that brought a daughter ended in divorce. He knew it was his duty to marry again to secure the Pahlevi dynasty, but he wanted to do it for the sake of love.
In the Autumn of 1950, Soraya's cousin Gudars Baktiari who was studying at the same language school in London with Soraya, asked Soraya if he could take photographs of her. They were, he said for his mother to show to the Dowager Princess, the Shah's mother. After a few days, her father wrote to say the Shah had asked for her to be presented at the court. Then on October 7, 1950 , Soraya accompanied by her father and Princess Shams who is the Shah's oldest sister, took the night flight to Tehran.The Dowager Empress had arranged a small dinner at which only the innermost family circle were invited. Members of the Royal Family welcomed Soraya warmly. Then his majesty, the Shah arrived.
The Shah was strikingly handsome in the dress uniform of a general of the Iranian Airforce. Throughout the meal he gave Soraya his whole attention, inquiring her about her studies That is the beginning of the most enchanting romance in Soraya's life. The day she found the most beautiful thing in the world known as "love."
Next morning her photographs was in the world's newspapers. Three days later, the official celebration to mark their engagement took place in the Imperial Palace. The wedding was set on December 27. Everyday for the next here weeks the young couple went horse riding, driving into the country for picnics and flying in the Sha's private plane. By the end of October Tehran was in grip of a typhoid epidemic. Soraya was afflicted with typhoid fever. She was confined.to bed for three months as she regained her health and strength. It was during this period that Soraya and Shah fell deeply in love. Each day he spent hours at her bedside ,he brought her flowers and gifts . The wedding was finally held on the 12th day of February, 1951. Then a two-week honeymoon in a villa on the shores of theCaspian Sea followed. Both the Shah and Soraya loved sports . They swam, rode and sailed together , played volleyball and learned to water ski. Like other young couples they enjoyed parties, fancy dress balls, private film shows and picnics. In 1954 they set out on a series of state visits to Britain, Germany and the United Staes.
Everywhere, Soraya was admired and photographed, and everywhere people keep on asking the same question : when will she give the Shah the son and heir to the throne.There could be no official coronation of the Empress until a crown prince had been born.
For some time the Shah did not refer to the subject of his heir. They engaged themselves in good works and charitable endeavors. After six years of marriage,no heir to the Shah was born. Soraya by this time had given up hope.She knew that if she was to hold on to her marriage , she would have to propose a solution. Distraught at the thought of loosing her, the Shah decided to call his Council of Wise Men together to discuss for the possible resolutions.
On the 13th of February, 1958, almost seven years to the day since their wedding day, Queen Soraya kissed her husband goodbye. After a month three emissaries from Tehran arrived to see her, According to them she could still remain an Empress if she agreed to the Shah taking a second wife who would give him a heir. He was entitled to do this under Islamic Law. Would Soraya agree to this proposal ? A few days later the Shah announced the "divorce" with great sorrow. There was no doubt about the Shah's grief, he looked as if his heart was breaking. Soraya has been inconsolable for a time, threw herself madly into a mainstream of a jetset life. She was seen with film stars and playboys. She stopped smiling and refused to speak of the past.
This is one great love story which started so beautifully but ended with so much pain and sorrow. This story is also about a very fragile love relationship , which has not stood the test of life. Isn't a man and his wife destined to be together for better or for worse till death do them part. By mere inability of the woman to produce an offspring, the marriage broke, so fragile. So sad to say that the man she loved deeply have not valiantly fought for the survival of their relationship.
If Soraya had only found the greatest LOVE which is no other than the LOVE of GOD, the pain will not be that unbearable. If she has only rested her confidence and security upon God's love , the pain will not be that much deep. If she had only known that there is SOMEONE who died to give her a royal crown much much greater than the Shah of Persia can give.
Although a wife or a husband is God's precious gift to us, we should never build our world around them, we should never make them the center of our existence, for they are also bound to fail us or even break our hearts. Although they may remain faithful for life, marriage is bound to exist only here on earth for a spouse life is also bound to end . The death of a spouse is bound to end the marriage.
That's why we can never rest our security on our own marriage, for it is fragile as life. God wants us to rest our perfect security only in his love For His LOVE is the only thing that will remain unmovable, unchanging, firm, unfailing throughout all the ages.
God in His perfect WISDOM , knows very well the fragility of human relationships , designed that HE be our FIRST LOVE. Because He wants us to be spared from deep heartaches and despair as experienced by Soraya. And God's love alone is the only one Standing firm in the universe when everything else fails. God will never break our hearts ,His love is tested throughout all the ages. God will never leave us nor forsake us. Only HE could love us with a perfect love for only HE has a PERFECT HEART.
"The unfailing love of the Lord never ends. By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each day I say to myself. ‘the Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in Him."
Lamentations 3 :22 -25
SOURCE : This article is an excerpt from the book 'The World's Wealthiest Losers' by Margaret Nicholas
