Not Natasha
Not Natasha causes more heartaches than Not Bacon ever could . . .
 I remember not Natasha.* She was attractive, blonde without being blonde (as in the jokes about blondes) and nice to be near. We’d gone through school together and it was in the last year of primary school that I really noticed her as more than someone who happened to be in the class with me.
At that age (perhaps 11 years old) it’s difficult to recognise the variety of feelings that burble through your body when boy meets girl and something kind of melts inside. I asked a mate and he said it must be love.
Chocolates were going to get me into her heart. It was her birthday so I took out pocket money and, being the chocolate connoisseur I was, bought her Cadbury’s Roses. My mum helped me wrap them.
I remember feeling slightly foolish as I rode my bike to her home to hand deliver them, but I figured you do get slightly foolish when you’re in love.
She wasn’t even home. Her mum answered the door when I knocked. I mumbled something about it being not Natasha’s birthday and gave the chocolates to her mother to pass on.
Not Natasha’s response? It was as if she reached into my chest, pulled my heart out and did a tango on it. There was no response. Nothing. Ever.
I was broken-hearted for at least three days. Then I think the football season started and sport took over.
Thinking about my heartbreak over not Natasha made me wonder about God. I can’t even begin to imagine how heartbroken He was when the relationship He had with His creation, with His children (Adam and Eve). was fractured. The joy was gone. The pain was intense.
And to win me back He offers something better than chocolates—He offers Jesus. He’s determined to win any heart that will accept Him.
The chocolate incident was the beginning of the end for not Natasha and me (well, for me, anyway—maybe she’d never really noticed me). I just hope she’s aware of the gift God has for her and accepted it. She’d be grateful.
*Natasha is not her real name. Her name has been changed because the writer has not learned to cope with the emotional scars she caused him.
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Bruce Manners (left) is senior pastor of
the Avondale College church.