Yesterday I fired off an e-mail to a friend, only in the e-mail I referred to him by another name. I’d been e-mailing a few guys at the same time and slipped up. My friend e-mailed me back, joking with me, and in a subsequent e-mail, he called me Dan. And even though I’d been the one to first make the mistake, and even though my friend knows and loves me, seeing my name misspelled still stung a little bit. My first thought was that it stung because I was arrogant, after all, I did deserve the joke. But what is it in us that hurts when somebody forgets our name? I actually don’t think it’s arrogant at all. I think it’s by design.
You and I were designed to be friends with God, to be close to Him, to know Him and be known by Him. God gave mankind freedom to walk away, and man did. So now there is a separation. We are separated from the Deity we were supposed to be in relationship with. Without that love, we trade on each others love, which pales in comparison. When my friend saw that I called him by another name, he was reminded of the relationship he was supposed to be in, and reminded how impotent human love can be. He forgave me, but it’s a sad reminder. It’s even sadder because my friend is one of the most loving, other-person centered people I know, and as an introvert, I’m terrible in comparison.
But the news isn’t all sad. Through Christ, we will be reunited with God at the wedding feast of the lamb. We will be reunited with God, because God will look at us and see his Son, and we will have that relationship again. Until then, we are called to love, to work on love, to practice love, because love is what calms people down, comforts them and helps them believe something better may exist. Some day we are going to get the love we were designed to receive. And that thought gives me hope.
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