On Love and Longing, Part 1

When I think of entering heaven, I picture waking up in a field.

I have no idea where I got that image from, and I think it is a fairly recent development, but I definitely have clear visions of "coming to" in a sloping meadow surrounded by rolling hills and little yellow flowers and a bright blue sky with a light breeze. (Wow, writing it all out sounds a lot more detailed than it is in my mind.) And in my mind's eye, the way I put together that I'm dead is that Michael is sitting there grinning at me.

And it is Michael, jubilant Michael, that I want to see. And now, it is also Uncle Rob, walking proudly toward me, beaming from ear to ear.

And that strikes me as a bit odd. I mean, shouldn't I want to see...um...God? The Bible doesn't even make it explicitly clear that heaven is a big reunion with all of our loved ones. After all, Jesus says that people are not married in heaven. Who's to say that we even know each other? So...it seems a bit misguided that my defining pictures of heaven are of people I might not even see, rather than the God who created me.

But here is my new conclusion to that conundrum: I believe that in picturing the people I loved most on this earth, I am picturing the clearest conception of God that I have.

For some time now, I have struggled to figure out how my natural love for my family fits in to Jesus' admonitions to hate your father and mother and His praise for those who leave their families to follow Him. I just haven't been able to see how my familial love and His words are compatible. But I think I am beginning to understand.

I believe that storge love, the Greek word for love of family, is a gift that God gives us in order that everyone might see His face. Storge love is supposed to be completely natural, and the fact that it often isn't speaks to our depravity. Because that love is a gift. And the reason that God gives us a degree of natural love is because that is His essence. He exists in love. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the people that when they served "the least of these" in love, they were serving Him. What I get from that is when we love people actively, we meet God in them. Thus, actively loving our families allows us to see God. And that's why when I picture reunion with God, my clearest picture is my brother.

The beauty of Christianity is that storge love is only a starting point. As amazing and powerful as it is, it is merely a doorway into agape love, which is unconditional love for everyone. Storge is merely the deposit that shows us what love can be. Agape breaks that amazing love out of the relatively narrow confines of blood relations and spreads it to the world. The more we embrace agape love in our lives, the more we see the face of God. The more we agape, the more we know God and experience God. The more we agape, the more we live life to the fullest.

And that's how I reconcile my deep, abiding love for my family with Jesus' call to serve everyone. We serve others, not at the expense of our family, but in addition to our family. Jesus' words about hating/leaving our family are just a strong way of warning us not to stop at storge love, but to pursue agape. Storge love is like the talent that the king gave his followers, in Jesus' parable. Agape love is how we multiply that talent. When we neglect agape for the sake of storge, we misuse God's gift to us.

This line of thought excites me. It not only helps me to understand the relationship b/t my love for my family and my love for others, it also shows me how that love is one of the most powerful ways to know and to see God.