So I was hanging out with my nephew the other day, actually a few weeks ago. Nate Jakob. He is a beauty. He is changing my life. It's weird. It happened with my niece Tristyn too....but its happening all over again.
The little punk is quickly stealing my heart. When he was here, I couldn't wait to get home and chase him, pick him up, shake him upside down, play our head shaking game and tattoo his chubby little arms like his uncles (which looked wicked by the way). He truly is contagious. I love to hang out with him. He's hilarious. A true entertainer.....a true McLean at heart.
The funny thing is I have this weird attachment to him.......or facination......or tug towards him. It's hard to explain. Especially considering I'm not even his parent!!! But what I'm beginning to realize is that what I'm really discovering is agape love in its truest sense. A deeply, rooted, selfless love. That is the tug....the pull. Something that goes beyond my own care and attention. To truly and actually love something and someone more than myself. No strings. Nothing expected in return. Sure I have seen glimpses before....but its not the same. I am, I believe, beginning to understand the father/son relationship. Hmmm....I think the Bible uses a lot of that language.
The love between a father and son, mother and daughter, parents and children....is deep, heavy and passionate. Something I know one day I will experience. Which also has humbled me now, and given me a new found respect and honour for my own parents and how they see me. But where does it come from. Why do we have it? I think it stems from something even bigger than ourselves. It is a window into the the great love relationship that governs our very universe.
Is this why the Bible and Jesus used such language? As far as I know, God has no sex. He (best I can do) isn't male or female. He has no sex. He is uncreated. He has no body. He is timeless. The best way to describe him actually is how he did - I AM. God, the father, doesn't literally have an actual "son" - as we understand it today. There is no "sex life" or procreation going on within the trinity. So why the language? Why the analogy?
Because, what it is describing, the RELATIONAL INTIMACY between the father and son, the love relationship within the trinity DOES exist.
It's the same deep, abiding love relationship that I experienced with my nephew. In fact that's where it stems. God is talking to us in language we can understand. We can understand the life, love, relationship and personal intimacy within the trinity, between Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit, because, as humans, we first love and understand the love between each other. Especially between parents and children.
I'm beginning to see that none of this is a fluke. I had often wondered why we come into the way we do. It's so weird. Inside a stomach? Umbilical cord? (Ya I looked that word up.) Why babies? Why the development? Why the poop? Why the trust? Why the learning? Why the time? Why not just BAM......your here......fully developed......like a Viva Beijing firework. My sister is actually pregnant again and I caught myself staring at her. I know that sounds weird, but I just stared at her gut. There is a live human being INSIDE HER! That is crazy. Growing and forming inside her. Its like the movie alien. So weird. Then after the birth, we have to spend time nurturing them, teaching them, caring for them, sharing with them and ultimately loving them. This is, for a healthy upbringing, the right, natural way of things. Its no wonder or coincidence deep scars and lifelong problems are birthed here, when this process is skewed. I think this creative process is there for a reason.
Within this relationship we find trust, obedience, patience, perseverance, mercy, grace, joy, suffering...its all there. It's not a fluke that we come into the world as innocent as babies. Completely and totally dependant on the love of our parents to carry us through. It's a glimpse into the very heart of the father, our creator. He's teaching us about him. About his character. About how he sees us. We begin to understand the concept of loving something so much we would die for it...for them. We begin to see his love for us. I've heard parents say this over and over again.
This is what Nate is teaching myself. I remember looking into Nate's eyes as I was tattooing his underarms and he looked at me with total trust. The only reason he let me do that was because he felt safe with me. He knew that the marker wouldn't hurt him, that I knew what I was doing. He trusted me. I can still see his eyes. It clicked. I thought to myself as I looked in his eyes. I love you. Of course I would never hurt you buddy. I love ya. In fact, I would do anything in this world to help you if you were in trouble. I would protect you, I would fight for you.......I would die for you.
It seems to me I've heard those words before.
John 3:16
These are my thoughts, not yours.
Ned
1 comment:
This is only the beginning...
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