Imagine a world with this word placed in everybody’s vocabulary, before the word “Love.” It would seem impossible, right?
Now think about the first time you ever told anybody outside of your immediately family. Think about it, why did you do that? Or if you haven’t yet, why would you?
Were you pressured into doing it?
Or did you have some grandiose and romantic plan on saying it at a beach just as the waves crashed upon the rocks so as to drown out your undying and unfathomable love proclamation, only to have her go “What?” and then as the waves die down you say it again, and the orchestra plays a ballad and you walk off into the sunset? – (by the way, as far as my daughters know, an orchestra will be on stand by when their soon to be fiancé tells them he loves them for the first time. Because if there isn’t one, well then… to the curb. Ya know? but, I digress)…
In thinking about this, did you think that there would be anything in the world that could or would stop you from telling him or her? I know at one time, on my first time saying “I love you” to a girl, there was no way anything was getting in the way of me telling her.
No “well if she does this…” or “if that ends up being true, then I won’t…”
I knew what I wanted to say, and I was going to say it no matter what. In my 12-year-old mind, this girl could do nothing wrong. To me, this was the closest thing to “unconditional” love that I knew about. Oh, yes I was very young.
Then I remember the first time I told my beautiful wife that I loved her… which was after she told me. Unfortunately, after a couple of years of one of my biggest heart-breaks I made this condition. One of many, before I would talk myself up to giving my heart away again to say “I Love You” to anybody.
A freakin’ condition.
Us. Us Humans. We do that.
We make conditions on events and choices in our lives, including who and how we love based on our past experiences, but get this: Imagine a world, a complicated world where God had conditions on His Love. A condition that denied us of Salvation.
Whoa.
Thank GOD, or thank YOU GOD that we are not in such a world.
- Conditions are plural
- Conditions are complicated
- Conditions are not simple.
Let’s keep it simple.
part 1 of “Simple” a oneword365 series
