"A LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS HUMAN UNDERSTANDING"
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
By Travis Franklin
I am realizing lately that God’s love for me is larger than life. In the shadow of the birth at Bethlehem I realize that as a finite human being I do not have the capacity to understand the love of God as it finds expression in the baby at Bethlehem. Maybe that is part of what makes the word becoming flesh such mystery. The God of the universe willfully, freely choosing to intimately connect with me begs the question why. When I try to seek an answer as to my query into why it defies by feeble attempts at any satisfactory explanation. Maybe the very act of such loving even between human beings or God is and will always be shrouded in such mystery. Most things we understand we seek to control. I am not sure that love, at least in a soulful expression of it, is in fact out of our control and always will be. Maybe that is why we live with such ambiguity related to anything we label as sacred or mystery. We know on some level we need it in order to be the human beings God created us to be, but to surrender control to the radical, intense, purity and unpredictability of such love is just too much to ask. So we choose to relate to one another and God on our terms and we bluff our way into believing such expression to be love.
The birth of the baby in Bethlehem epitomizes the way and shape of how God dares to boldly love. It is a love rooted in the nature and mystery of God and that is why we stand around the manger in awe with our mouths hanging open and tears in our eyes because we sense in our souls the truth of such loving as it moves and wiggles in the manger. While we recognize the sacredness of this baby and who and what it represents we try to reach deep to grasp why and how can God choose to become so intimately involved in a creation that seems so uneasy and awkward with its createdness. Such loving is simply beyond our comprehension and understanding.
The older I get the more I come to realize that it is this mystery of God’s love and its daring expression in the world that makes it so beautiful and appealing to me. It’s wondrous and timely expression haunts me. Its authentic and sacrificial nature calls to my soul and I am captivated by its harmony. I am drawn in because even though I may not understand all that it means or where it is all leading I do know that it is given to me and for me unconditionally as a gift. As I come to know that sacred and timeless truth what else can I do but silently drop to my knees, lift my hands in the air towards the heavens, and weep the sweet tears of pure and unbounded joy as I realize it is all for me.
Humbly I watch this baby, the baby and I open my soul to accept this gift into my life as I my voice cracks as I utter the words under by breath before I have even understood what I have said, “I will follow you all the days of my life where ever you dare to lead me.” In light of such mysterious and haunting loving what else am I to do?
Travis