Apple, mango…its all good

23Aug
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

-John 13:33-35


I was in Whole Foods this week. A young mother and her two-year-old daughter were wheeling through the aisles in constant chatter, naming items. Holding up a bunch of broccoli, the mother offered a one word question/statement, “Bra-col-lee!?” The toddler answered, “b...B-bak-wee!” “Yes, Yaaay, broccoli. Good Job!” While the mother was selecting bananas, her daughter was able to grasp a mango from the display next to the cart. When her mother returned from the bananas, her child held up the mango and said, “AP-pul!” Reassuringly, the young mother said, “MANG-go!” Seemingly confused, the child hoarsely whispered, “MANG-go!?” “Yes, mango; gooood job; I’m so proud of you…” “Mango!”


I had lived that moment and many like it with our children Marcail and Nick; even deep into their youth: at performances at NOCCA and on the football field, respectively. “That was amazing; I’m so proud of you!” “I love you.”


Then I had a conversation with Marcail last night that caused me to wonder when I ceased to say, “Good job. I’m so proud of you!” When did I start assuming that my children and my wife and all the beloveds in my life knew I loved them, absent my saying so. If I think, “I love you, I’m so proud of you.” How could they know? Oh sure, I show it. I think; but when did I stop saying it, just for the joy of releasing the bubbles of love and pride in words.


My love for God, for my Savior, Jesus the Christ, is well served by practicing it in silence because, in silence, we discover God’s presence. We pray silently, trusting that God hears us. (crickets)…that is, no words in return. I am taught to think of the present silence of God as the silent presence of God. The operative essence of justification by faith is yearning, in silence. Trusting. 


On the other hand, I have found that being a silent lover with my people does not work, because loving silently is based on my certainty that my children, my wife, my grandchildren, my brothers all know I love them. For me, here inside my head, it is an absolute certainty. The problem is, that kind of certainty snacks non-stop, on yearning. Jesus is demanding of us that we love one another with the same yearning with which we love Him—with which He loves us. We are not omniscient and omnipresent like God. We need words of yearning-love to pass between us. The words tickle the yearning.


My mother was great at this. She exhibited yearning love for people and for her Creator as she lived and diminished and failed, and even into death. I want to be that kind of lover. 


As you read this, I say, “I love you. I love you…good job. Apple; mango…its all good.”  

Musical Reflection - Not While I'm Around - Sondheim, Barbara Streisand


Creator, original Lover, Savior; help us to keep our yearning for one another alive and boisterously declared —as we live vividly, as we diminish gracefully, as we die peacefully. Love is all. Amen

Family LifeGospelGratitudeLovePentecost

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