Q: Did you hear the one about the dyslexic insomniac agnostic?
A: He used to stay up all night, wondering if there was a Dog.
Bear with me, I actually am going somewhere with this thought. And the thought is Unconditional Love. The only two places I have found it in this life are from God, and from my dog.
I will talk about my dog first. I have heard people say they wish they were as perfect as their dog thinks they are. Sometimes I fall short of perfection, but my dog still wants to be with me, and looks at me with adoring eyes. I may yell at her, or discipline her, but she forgives me every time. Every time I walk through the door, I am greeted with enthusiastic, unreserved love. It is a Wonderful Thing.
I certainly don't want to trivialize the love of God by comparing it to the love of Dog, but can only say that there are many people in the world who will never know true unconditional love. My dog is not aware of my imperfections, but God is; yet he readily forgives us and loves us unconditionally.
That leaves the rest of us who are neither Divine nor Canine. We have a hard time giving OR receiving unconditional love.
We can't give unconditional love, because of our expectations. Something within us wants payment for our love... or at least a quid pro quo. We have an instinctive feeling that THERE IS A PRICE TO BE PAID FOR LOVE. We do something wonderful for someone, and they forget to tell us thanks, they don't do us a favor in return, or they generally take us for granted. Our feelings are hurt.
Or maybe the other person did something that made us angry with them, and we aren't big enough to forgive them and love them. There is a price to be paid for love. Like the statue of Justice, we hold a balancing scale in our hand, and the weights on either side are always unequal. For we humans, loving unconditionally is an impossibility.
We sometimes can't receive unconditional love, either. It is too big, and implies a future commitment on our part. Our cramped and shriveled little souls can't unclench enough to receive it. We know the sinful beings we are, and we know that we don't deserve it.
The good news is that God's unconditional love is free. There is a price to be paid for it, but it has already been paid. All we need to do is stretch out our hearts and our hands and receive it.
