Of course, there's also the fact that we still love vampires even when they do bite us. In fact, part the story that begins in Twilight is Bella's desire to become a vampire also. Edward may do everything possible to keep her from having to become the monster he sees himself to be, but still Bella dreams of the only means through which she could actually be with Edward for all eternity. Although, as Bella puts it, "death is peaceful, easy; life is harder," with love in the picture, she would actually rather take an eternity of life's difficulty than the normal release of death an age-appropriate time.

"When you live forever what do you live for?" Twilight's tagline asks. And in the relationship between Bella and Edward, the answer it gives is love. It is what makes Bella want to live forever, and in Edward's forever, it is what gives meaning to his eternity. "You don't know how long I've waited for you...You are my life now," Edward tells Bella. As much as Edward and Bella's undying love at 17 may be a bit difficult to fully believe, in it is a truth that speaks to the eternal world in which we all live. Like Edward, God is impossibly fast and strong and capable of destroying us without a second thought. But instead of filling His life and world with destruction, He chose to define His eternity and relationship with us by love. And although we all will one day leave the bodies we inhabit here on this earth, it is that eternity lived in love for which every one of our souls longs

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