‘No one has
ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made
complete in us’ 1 John 4 v 12
Did you
ever have those pens as a kid that only certain paints, inks or lights could
make visible? Here the bible is giving us a key to God visibility … LOVE is
what illuminates us. It shows us who God really is and who we are.
It makes us
more real (velvetine rabbit style)
Such was Jesus’
identification with his fellow humans that he said that to do to others was the
same as to do to him and to do to him was to do to God. Interestingly he most
identifies with the ‘least of these my brothers and sisters’ :the least
important, the least attractive, the least visible. Why? I think because if we
can see the sacredness of these precious ones, who have had all their human
wealth and status stripped away, it’s because we have discovered the invisible
ink that reveals the infinite value of everyone. Love. And there in the ink
spill amongst the lost and confused and down trodden of this world we will also
find the face of God. Only when worldly interest has left the building, can
love make its home.
These
passages reaffirm that we cannot ‘love God and hate our neighbour’ because that
would involve an inherent contradiction. Your neighbour is God’s brain child,
to damage one of his beloveds, however small, is a direct shot to the Heart.
But more than this, if we dare to look deeper and discover the unique beauty of
each one, it will be like finding pieces of shattered light, tiny mirrors
reflecting the face of God.
‘Whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it
for me’ Jesus
