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How do you speak of love to someone who does not believe in its existence?
Not the earthly affection shared between couples, but the love that transcends all imagination. The love offered by Father toward His children.
It is impossible.
And yet in an ongoing conversation between my dear friend, Victor and myself, trying to explain the difference between religion and relationship, has been just as impossible.
Victor, God love him, is a Jew by nationality, a psychologist by profession and a skeptic by admission. Any attempts on my part to explain the abounding love of God for His creation through the gift of Salvation by the shed blood of Jesus, is met with a litany of rhetorical sound bites famously rehearsed from years of practice.
But today was different.
Today the Spirit breathed new life into our conversations.
In discussing the plight of a mutual friend’s troubled marriage an analogy was birthed!
“Vic, in your line of work, you counsel couples who, although legally married, their hearts are not bound to each other. They simply are going through the motions, correct?” I inquired.
“Yes, quite frequently they are simply bound to each for financial or social obligations, but they share no deep affection for each other,” he answered.
“Well,” I beamed, “that is the difference between religion and relationship.”
“How so?” my curious friend replied.
“When you are in religion, your relationship with God is simply a duty, an obligation for whatever benefit you personally hope to obtain,” I offered.
“Hum…I suppose that would be true,” he agreed.
“But when you are in relationship,” I paused for effect, “it is like gazing on a couple passionately mad for each other after fifty years of marriage.”
“You know, my friend,” he smiled, “that I understand.”
“…for God so passionately loved the world, that He gave His only precious Son, Jesus, to bind us in a marriage relationship that would put all others to shame,” I closed, “that dear Victor, is the difference…love.”
© 5/1/06
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