Sunday, March 8, 2015

Love Never Ends: A Meditation by Brian Zahnd

nebula

Why is there something instead of nothing? 
The only answer I can imagine is Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God…
But why would God say, “Let there be light” and initiate Creation?
The only answer I can imagine is God is love.

What is light? God’s love in the form of photons.
What is water? A liquid expression of God’s love. 
What is a mountain? God’s love in granite, so much older than human sorrow.
What is a tree? God’s love growing up from the ground.
What is a bull moose? God’s love sporting spectacular antlers.
What is a whale? Fifty tons of God’s love swimming in the ocean. 

As we learn to see Creation as goodness flowing from God’s own love—
We begin to see the sacredness of all things. 
As Dylan and Dostoevsky say, in every grain of sand.
All of creation is a gift — a gift flowing from the self-giving love of God. 

Why is there light and oceans and trees and moose and whales and every grain of sand? 
Because God is love — love seeking expression in self-giving creativity. 
Unless we understand this we’ll misunderstand everything and misspend our lives.
In our misunderstanding and misspent lives we harm Creation—
Including our sisters and brothers, all of whom bear the image of God.

Love never ends.
At the end of all things there is love. Love abides. Love endures.
When the last star burns out, God’s love will be there for whatever comes after. 
In the end it all adds up to love. So when you are calculating the meaning of life—
If it doesn’t add up to love, recalculate, because you’ve made a serious mistake! 

Existence only makes sense when seen through the lens of love. 
At the beginning of time there is love. 
At the bottom of the universe there is love. 
It’s in God’s ocean of endless love that we live and move and have our being.