Love Is Holy

One of my favorite novels is Gilead by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilyn Robinson.  

The novel tells the story of a small-town pastor struggling with issues of life and faith.  It is told from his perspective, which gives you a glimpse at the inner life of a man who often wonders how to think about things like love and grace.  

There is a line from the book that captivated me, and I'll share it here: 

 “Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.”

First, Marilyn Robinson deserved a Pulitzer because this kind of writing is simply amazing. This one line is full of multi-layered meaning and beautifully written. It also has a poignancy that just hits me right in the feels. 

As I write this, I can't help but think about the song "I Don't Believe In Love" from the 80s metal band Queensryche because that's how my brain works.  

The chorus goes something like this: 

I don't believe in love, 

I never have and I never will. 

I don't believe in love 

It's never worth the pain that you feel. 

Aside from the fact that this is the band Queensryche's first appearance in the Daily Devos (and most likely the last), there's a painful poignancy to it as well.  

The singer is expressing his disillusionment with the idea of love after witnessing years of abuse, having his heart broken over and again, and developing a sense of the world that is jaded, fatalistic, and downright gloomy. 

Honestly, I prefer Marilyn Robinson's take. In that one line, she acknowledges that sometimes love doesn't make much sense to the outside observer and maybe even to the person experiencing feelings of love toward another. 

Someone who falls in love with an unlikely person sometimes says, "I don't know why I love them, but I do."  

But for Robinson, that is where the connection to grace comes into play.  Like grace, when love is freely given, the object of that love is not the most important thing at all.  

There are no expectations for that kind of love.  It's offered with the very real risk that it may not be reciprocated or could be betrayed.  It's presented without strings and with vulnerability and openness, leaving the presenter's heart bare.  

Grace (and here I'm talking about the grace of God, which is at the heart of Robinson's point), is inherently risky, making it unlike any other expression.  You could argue that grace is the most natural by-product of love. 

The grace of God comes to us all, falling upon us before we even know we need it.  It is always there to simply receive and experience without any condition.  

Believe it or not, some of us resist this grace. We hold it at arm's length because we think we are unworthy. We don't trust that God's grace could be real and true and refuse to embrace it fully, even though it is all around us.  

This is why Robinson's line is so beautifully hopeful. There is a holiness to love that acts like grace because it's the kind of love that God has for us. In fact, God's love for all of us is why God's grace is ever-present and ready to be embraced. 

The Christian tradition teaches that God was willing to do whatever it took for us to realize God's love and grace for us—even if it meant becoming one of us, taking on the worst the world had to offer, and overcoming all of it so we could see how much we are loved.

In turn, we are called to offer others the same kind of grace born out of love.  This is no easy task because it means we must be as vulnerable and open as God.  We must risk our love not being reciprocated and our grace not being received.  We must offer love and grace unconditionally.  

The object of this love and grace is not the issue. The only issue is that we offer what we have been given and then let the love and grace we have shared do the rest.  

Doing this fulfills Jesus' Greatest Commandment to "Love God, Love Everybody." 

May we all embrace the love and grace that we have been given by God.  May we see ourselves as beloved, which is how God sees us.  And may we share this love and grace with the same kind of vulnerability and openness that God showed through the example of Jesus. 

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever, Amen.