There is something special that happens when unconditional love, mercy, and compassion plays out in life. I know the cynics will tell me that if Christians were real then this would be normal. Perhaps the accusation is true yet I can’t help but think that I live in a world were each is capable of making mistakes, causing pain, and destroying relationships. I also find that the focus on what is wrong distracts from the beauty that is. The world is terrible! I don’t want to minimize this yet should it cannot be the focus of ever moment! Actually I don’t think it should be the focus of anything other than reminding me that there is something totally different; beauty, real beauty.
When I think of beauty I find myself moving beyond the sunsets, sunrises, vistas, flowers, and objects. I discover that when I am in the middle of awesome, mysterious, and life changing beauty that I am in the midst of relationships. You have heard me often talk about the heart stopping way a child can express hope with their eyes. How about a person who is saying thank-you? True thanks brings with it a spark that infuses hope, creates excitement, and drives one to want another opportunity to do it again! Think about what happens when you open up and discover that someone you love is saying “I love you” back. Nothing is the same again.
I dream of a world where people say “I love you” to others with their hands, ears, eyes, mouths, and their silence. This is a song that begs to be written and while we cannot write all of it today we can start! John describes a scene where he hears “music, harp music and the harpists singing a new song before the Throne.” (Revelation 14.3) You and I can write new relationship music today. We can give music that nurtures instead of exploits, lyrics that carry hope not justice, and a mysterious combination of time, place, and content that is only wrapped up as compassion and grace.
