Depth of Love

 

As summer arrived over the last few days bringing 85 degree temperatures, the neighborhood has sprung back to full activity mode. Families are enjoying picnics in the park. Children are playing. The tennis courts are full. Runners are running and walkers are walking. Another cycle is complete and a new season is marked by Spring.

My timing was such that I passed the soccer fields before they were filled with games. I’m not sure why this detail captured my attention, but it did. Were I to be in the habit of naming my photographs, this one would be titled, “The Almost Straight Line”. I think that is why it caught my eye, how “almost” straight it is. Were it all wiggly and wobbly, I wouldn’t have noticed. Were it straight as a yardstick edge, It never would have made my radar. It is the “almost” that did it.

We tend to have two different ways of seeing life, we humans. When we look at the life of another, we see a crooked line. Our personal feelings toward an individual, or the group in which we lump them, determines just how crooked we see the line of their lives. But when we look at our own lives, we tend to see a line that is “almost” straight. This is a symptom of the human condition. We know it to be true. More importantly, God knows it to be true.

In Romans we read, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “There is no one that is righteous, not even one.” As we move through Holy Week, we focus our attention on the one life that was straight and true in the living of God’s way in the world. Next to the life of Jesus, our lives look a bit less “almost” straight. In a fact, next to the life of Jesus, our lives suddenly look much more similar to those lives that we judge harshly. When reflecting on the life of Jesus, we find ourselves reflecting on our own need for forgiveness and grace.

The Good News is that we find just that in Jesus. The events of this week remind us the depth of love God has for all of us, no matter how crooked or “almost” straight our lives may be.

Peace.