Jesus in The Office

Besides completing a 31-day challenge, I've spent the last month discovering and carrying on a love affair with The Office (U.S. version).  I'd be ashamed to even calculate how many hours 9 seasons works out to.

For those who waited even longer than I to hear of a show that ended in 2013, the appeal of The Office lies in its dry [and sometimes vulgar] hilarity, and, eventually, its tender development of complex, sympathetic characters.

I'm reminded of the post I wrote after seeing The Notebook, in which I posit that every great story is a whisper of the Great Story, and that women especially love a good love story because it reflects the Lover of our souls.  

The first few seasons of The Office offer just such a touching story.  

{Merciless spoilers following}

The drama focuses on colleagues and good friends Jim and Pam, who are in love with each other but can't admit it, mainly because Pam is engaged to someone else.  At long last Jim does admit it, confessing his love to her despite her inevitable rejection (and at risk to life and limb at the hands of her fiance).

Why do we love this kind of heart-wrenching drama?  What makes women sigh and swoon over these scenes?  

I'm convinced it's because God has placed eternity in our hearts, and hints of the Great Story resonate in our souls.  

Jim is so obviously right for her:  he's witty and decent and charming and likable and values her far more than her own fiance does.  Yet this supremely cool guy humbles himself before her--just like our glorious Savior, the Desire of nations, humbled Himself before us.  

Jim steps up and speaks his love for Pam, instead of waiting for her to say it first--even though her acceptance would have been against all odds.  And when she cites her engagement and dutifully refuses, because she doesn't realize what she wants, Jim's unrequited declaration of love costs him great pain.  Yet, beautifully, his love for Pam doesn't end, and this story eventually has a happy ending.

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son...We love, because He first loved us."

1 John 4:10, 19

God didn't wait for us to love Him first.  He came to us, declaring His steadfast love, even though we loved the world and did not love Him.  Yet He bore our sins at unimaginably great cost and, in time, won our hearts.

I love a happy ending.