All Creation Is God’s Family. And Ours Too!
John the Evangelist, the probable writer of the fourth gospel, often spoke and wrote about love. “God is love…and if anyone says that he loves God whom he does not see but does not love his brother or sister whom he does see, he is simply a liar.”
John was certain that he was correct. John sat for hours with his young followers gathered around him. One day as he was meditating, one of his young admirers complained: “John you always talk about love: God’s love for us and about our love for one another.” And then, after pausing, he got enough courage to finish with the question: “Why don’t you tell us something else besides love?” John, the disciple who once laid his head on Jesus’ shoulder at the Last Supper, replied:
“Because there is nothing else, just love, love, and love. Love is the only way toward our human destiny, heaven, and to the feet of God who is love” he said. We cannot say “yes” to loving God without saying “yes” to love of neighbor. Neither can we say “yes” without including all others in our act of love.
Jesus is perfectly clear about this. If we come to place our gift at the altar and remember that we are nursing a grudge against our neighbor, we must go back and make peace with our neighbor. He tells us it is only then we can return to the altar and offer our gift to our waiting God. Our God only wants our gift of love after we reconcile with our neighbor.
John writes in his gospel: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. This then, is what I command you: love one another.” What God is saying to us clearly and simply is that we cannot have a relationship of love with God unless we first have a relationship of love with one another.
As a Christian, this may seem like an unattainable goal. It may be much easier to love the God we don’t see rather than the neighbor we do see. God knows what he is saying. If God can do it, he wants you and me and all creation to do it. Why? Because “whatever you do to the least of my children you do to me, and whatever you don’t do to the least of my children you do to me.”
What is your choice? Talk to the Lord. He awaits your response!
Painting: Belonging, George MacDonald, artist
