Chapel of Faith

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 22:36-40

Vincent van Gogh once said, “The best way to know God is to love many things.” An incredible truth held in one sentence and thought.

The reason this works is that in the process of partaking and exercising unconditional love, we are forced to accept the individual or thing for what it is. Not what we desire, but its current and precise condition.

The object is not up to us, the action is. Jesus specifically addressed this when asked “what is the greatest commandment in the law?” He knew for love to mean anything to anyone, it had to be processed through relationships based solely upon His standards.

Everyone is created for relationship. It is a rare individual who is a complete outcast and even these people have pets or limited contact of some kind. It is a necessity of living and if we desire to go deep it must go beyond superficial, selfish levels and the acceptance of holding, clutching the person or thing as presented.

G.K. Chesterton said: “Of all the Fairy Tales none contains so vital a moral truth as the old story of Beauty and the Beast. There is written, with all the authority of a human scripture, the eternal and essential truth that until we love a thing in all its ugliness, we cannot make it beautiful.”

It is not easy to love less or a few selected items. God created you and I to partake of what he designed, done with all your heart, soul and mind. It is a comprehensive and essential ingredient in extending God’s love to all things and involves your unconditional acceptance of others as yourself.

This single standard from God is commanded, pursues relationship and puts together people as they are. Are you a lover of many things? That is the best way to know God.

Submitted by Pastor Dave Jagemann