The
kind of universal love advocated by Christ tempers and stretches our
hearts and minds to encompass a truly transcendent form of love.
(Through the Year with Jimmy Carter, page 335).
It
is often pointed out the God spelled backwards is dog. No doubt
there are some dog lovers that hold their dog in greater esteem than
God. Another reversal stems from 1 John 4:8 – Whoever does not
love does not know God, because God is love. The reversal
transacted here is that as “God is love” likewise “love is
God.” Many Christians wince at this latter construction
essentially because we see love as sourced in God not man. That is, if
no human existed (or any animal that loves) then we believe that the
love of God would remain, as indeed God would remain. If “love is
God” then I can construct an idol of love—call him “Bunny”.
Now all types of love that can consume the human heart and mind can
be projected upon and imbued within this idol. This perversion of
divinity into whatever my mind and emotions can conjure up is
repulsive to believers who sense an absolute and eternal nature in
the Creator God. In fact, such human idolatry is the essential
problem with all idol worship.
My
challenge for us on this day after Thanksgiving is to set our
thoughts on the source of life and be thankful for the divinity that
abides outside and beyond ourselves and exceeding that which we can
ever construct—to bow in worship to God not man.
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