Today, I was having a moment of deep thought about love. As I am one who pins on Pinterest, there are a lot of great quotes about love. I pin them. There are quotes about the inspiration of love, of God as love, of the hurt of loving someone and losing them, of parental love, of passionate love, and so it goes.
I recently watched the film “Life of Pi.” This allegorical story, as told by Pi to a potential writer of his story, asks a question and attempts to answer it. The writer asks: “Can you make me believe in God?” At the end of the storytelling by Pi to the writer, the writer understands more deeply his connection with both the story and how it relates to believing in God. When Pi asks, “Which story did you like better, the one with the tiger or the one without the tiger,” the writer responds, “the one with the tiger,” and we have our answer. The writer sees why he should now believe. Pi says to him, “And so it is with God.”
And I say, so it is with love. Love is absolutely inexplicable. We fall in love sometimes with blinders on, and sometimes with them off. We love things and places and people. We love deeply. We hurt deeply when it goes wrong.
For example, when your heart breaks, it’s not literally breaking…or is it? Recent scientific studies have shown that every little trauma in our life is now showing up on brain scans. A doctor I know recently told me you can actually “see” on the scan where someone has had distress in their life. That love and heartbreak is real.
We can’t see love, but we feel it. It’s there. We speak the three little words: “I love you.” It is just as real as about anything I know.
And so it is with God.
