October 6, 2011

A Doghouse Wedding


     I kind of think of Time & Space as a doghouse.

     We persistently allow ourselves to give in to the belief that this doghouse is our Home. However, what we constantly forget is that this Time, this Space, this whole life and human skin our Souls have been arranged within, is not our Home. We forget that fact, though, because of our fallen nature; the distance between God and ourselves has been ever wider since the first rifting sin of Adam and Eve. But imagine this- maybe God allowed that gap to occur because He already planned to show us the perfectly eternal perspective of His Love through the expansion of the "Couple" to the "Family".

     God is Love, but is also too Big for us to imagine, much less truly fathom. So, when we separated from His Truth (by our own fall), He gave us the other types of Love to remind us that our plans and lives are to be for Love- in a dirty, albeit loyal, impression of all that He is- to reflect His Being to others (being mirrors to try to reflect Christ outwards) and Love in such a radical way that it stands out and is highlighted to everyone around us. Jesus says Himself, in John 13:35: "By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have Love for one another."

     After the fall of that first "Couple", though, there came diverse expansion for the dimensions of Love: Storge (the Love of affection, such as fondness for another through familiarity), Philio (the Love of friendship, such as that between family and friends), Eros (the Love of romance, of lovers), and Agape (the Unconditional Love, a Love that brings forth caring regardless of any circumstance). Four different side of one beautiful gem, a giant prism that contains every spectrum and color within its rays. Perhaps God gave us these other Loves to strengthen the illustration of His Perfect Love for each of our Souls; a constant reminder of our waiting Home, that lays outside this weary doghouse.

     Maybe He really is making us stronger, no matter how tempting or misgiving our doubts and disbelief may grow to be or seem to ensnare. We might screw up all the time with Love, but maybe He's always perfectly loyal, no matter how filthily stained the Bride's gown may be in the end. Maybe He's just overjoyed because she made it down the aisle in one piece, since that's the hardest part. Maybe this whole Time & Space shindig ends as a glorious Wedding. Maybe He really has just been in control of everything, from the very first place of it all to the final scene...

     And maybe none of those questions are "maybe" things.

     After all, how could our Humanity coexist with Divinity? Through marrying its redeemed essence, the Holy Spirit, united in the aggregate Body of the Church, from every course and era of this history, present, and future? The Bride to the Bride-Groom of Christ as the clincher scene before the real and true "Happily Forever After". It's His story, anyway, right? And, since He's Love, I don't Believe He would have written it to end out as a Tragedy.

     Maybe He did it so that when we're led, at the very last, out of this putrid doghouse, we'll see the true breadth of God's Light and Love and Being, lose our breath at its sight, and then we'll finally and actually Believe Him, in forever renewed earnest, when He tells us that we are not dogs, and that we were meant for a world, a reality, that shines so much brighter than the rotten wooden slats of this place we all-too-often believe to be our position and perception.

     The Bride shall be walked right down that aisle, right out of that doghouse, and directly into the full light of an infinitely elaborate and joyous ceremony...

     I'm a Soul who's rather big on metaphors. I nearly speak the dialects of analogy and poetry better than I do the average verbal exchange (and I'm pretty sure that not even considered a "nearly", by at least a few). However, I could not now be happier with what He has given me; in this metaphorical tongue, I can almost hear Him whispering to us that this whole thing, despite our original err and sin, is truly a Comedy, after all.

     I can picture Jesus taking us into His arms then (one at a time, yet still all at once), at the very end of this unreality, and reminding us each of the Truth even while He wipes away our streaming tears of blinded joy, every one of them gently, His every word spoken with the calming care of convicted Love.

     "Like any good Comedy, this one needs a wedding!"