On Love, Death and Choice

There are moments when God grants me a clear perspective on the weightier matters of life. They are infrequent and short lived, and--unless I record them--are typically gone 5 minutes later. So I am compelled to share.

I had read Christopher Hitchen's article in Vanity Fair whereby he reveals his new life with cancer, and I was fascinated by his story. It occurred to me that regardless of our faith, none can escape death. Which got me thinking about other things we do not choose. Things like our skin tone...our families...and love. No, we do not choose love in this life. We are conceived without a say in the matter, and if we are not destroyed in the womb, it was because our mother chose to love us. Then as helpless infants we are nurtured and cared for--loved--even though we did nothing to earn it. As we grow into adults, none can escapes love's pull. So we fall in love, marry, and conceive the next generation. And so it has gone for all of human history. Love, as they say, makes the world go 'round.

Why is this love forced upon us? This is where I am quite certain Christopher Hitchens and I diverge. I believe in a loving God who created all of humanity out of the dust of the earth. He designed this thing, this love, that we would all experience on earth, with other humans, to prepare us for an eternity of love in heaven, with himself.

Now here I must mention that love on earth is complicated. In fact, we are really great at screwing it up. We were born with no choice but to love, and no choice but to mess up that love through sin. We are weaklings when it comes to love. But our creator knew this, and sent his Son, Christ Jesus, to show us how to love. More importantly, this Jesus, the Son of God, came to save us from our sin, by dying on the cross and paying the penalty for our sins.

I know this first and foremost because God has revealed it in the Bible. But then it resonates in my heart when I think about all this building up of love we experience, and how it all wells up inside of us until we have no choice but to love.

And then we have no choice but to die. Which is when we will really be able to love completely.