In 1931 Tennessee Williams wrote a tragic short story about a man who forgot something important…

Jacob Brodzky, a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore. The older Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart- a French girl who was very ambitious and outgoing as he was laid back and contemplative.

A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his father fell ill and died. The son returned home, buried his father, and married Lila. Then the couple moved into the apartment above the bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management.

The life of books fit him perfectly, but it cramped her. She wanted more adventure- and she found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe with a vaudeville company. Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.

“You had better keep this,” he told her, “because you will want it some day. Your love is not that much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting.”

She kissed him and left. To escape the pain he felt, Brodzky withdrew deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have taken to drink. He spoke little, did little, and could most times be found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his books while he waited for his love to return.

Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmastime, she did return. But when Brodzky rose from the reading desk, he took the love of his life as an ordinary customer.

“Do you want a book?” he asked. That he didn’t recognize her startled her.

But she gained possession of herself and replied, “I want a book, but I’ve forgotten the name of it.”

Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, which enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key, her husband gave her when they parted.

She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself. But his face showed no recognition. Gradually she realized that he had lost touch with his heart’s desire, that he no longer knew the purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the waiting and grieving itself.

“You remember it; you must remember it- the story of Lila and Jacob?” After a long pause, he said, “There is something familiar about the story, I think I have read it somewhere. I think that it is something by Tolstoi.”

Dropping the key, she fled the shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the love he waited for had come and gone.

What a story, eh? I thought so too. What also came to mind was Revelation 2:4b-5a. (I know what you are thinking—“Did he really think about Revelation after reading this story?” Actually, I did. I am kind of a Bible nerd.) It says this, “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Jacob had forgotten his first love. All he knew were books and the pain of loneliness. Although the story is creatively tragic, I can’t help but think about the ways I forget about our first love. Jacob forgot about Lila. John records the very words of Jesus in Revelation and Jesus is talking about a church who forgot about Him!

They didn’t exactly forget about Jesus, but they forsook (abandoned) their love for Him. It was as if they still loved Jesus but not as much as before. Jesus used to be their “first love” now He is somewhere lower on the list. That’s not so hard to believe is it?

All sorts of things get in the way of loving Jesus. In my life, the first thing that gets in the way of loving Jesus is loving myself. I want things done my way and if they happen to be Jesus’ way too—then it’s a bonus!

Jesus reminds the church of Ephesus to return to Him. Loving should be at the top of their ‘to do list’ and ours too. We aren’t asked to just follow the teachings of Jesus. We are asked to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37. That’s hard to do when we are loving other stuff.

God loves us so much. (Words can’t express this strong enough.) God wants our full devotion over full compliance. Do not forget who loved you first…

Pr. Ben