The Way of Love
by Rev. Greg W. Neteler
(October 2001)
Timmy was in
Miss Thompson’s elementary school class. His mother had recently died and
Christmas was almost there. Miss Thompson walked into her class the last day
of school before Christmas break to find her desk covered with presents for
her from the children, all beautifully wrapped except one which was in an old
wrinkled sack. It was from Timmy. Opening the many beautiful gifts, she
finally reached Timmy’s little sack.
“Oh, my,”
thought Miss Thompson. “What is this going to be?” Inside the bag was a
small bottle of cheap perfume—already opened—and a gaudy, imitation
rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing. As she put on the
bracelet, Miss Thompson said, “Why it’s lovely Timmy. Thank you very
much.” Remembering the perfume, she quickly continued, “I guess I’d
better try the perfume.” Later in the day Timmy approached his teacher.
“Miss Thompson? You smell just like my mother and her bracelet looks good on
you, too.”
When Timmy
passed from that grade, Miss Thompson did not see or hear from him for years.
Then one day she received a letter. “Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to
know I’m graduating second in my class. Love, Timmy.” Again she did not
hear from him for years until she received another note. “Dear Miss
Thompson, I’m graduating first in my class this time. I wanted you to know.
Love, Timmy.” More time passed until another note arrived, “Dear Miss
Thompson, I’m graduating Timmy Stollard, M.D.. I want you to be the first to
know. Since my dad passed away last year, I hope you can come to my graduation
because you are the only family I have left.”
Love is one of
the greatest transforming powers in the universe. While we associate love with
the warm, affectionate emotional response we feel for others or for things,
Charles Fillmore said in Twelve Powers of Man, “‘Gravity’ is mortal
man’s name for love. By the invisible arms of love we are held tight to
earth’s prolific bosom... .” Love is not an emotion; it is the principle
of unity, connection and oneness. It was the principle of spiritual love which
maintained the connection between Timmy and Miss Thompson.
Jesus expressed
this principle when he said, “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30) The
Greek word translated into English as one literally means a unity—the
unifying, harmonizing, connecting power called love. The same relentless
energy which keeps us connected to planet Earth and maintains the orbits of
all celestial bodies, keeps us unified with the source of all. When we face
challenges in life, it is easy to fall into a belief that we are separated
from the power and presence called God. However, though we may feel separate,
there can never be separation in fact. Charles Fillmore said that if God could
separate itself from any part of the universe, even for an instant, that part
would cease to exist. If we can feel separate from God, no wonder we feel
separate and disconnected from each other.
When there are
differences between people, when people do hurtful things, it can be difficult
to get beyond our human emotions of anger, resentment and hurt to feel our
connection and oneness. At the most difficult and painful moment in his life,
during the crucifixion, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do.” (Luke 23:34) In his darkest moment before the triumph of the
resurrection he reminds us of a deep spiritual truth. When people criticize
and condemn you, when they do hurtful things to you, the person is not the
enemy. Ignorance is the enemy. Sometimes the ignorance is both theirs for
doing whatever they do and ours for taking it personally thinking that it says
something about our own value and worth. We can fight fire with fire but that
usually results in everyone getting burned.
When we
criticize, condemn and talk negatively about our world, what does our world
do? It behaves just the way we tell it and returns what we give out. Imagine
how life would be if we felt connected to good, to life and to each other. The
world would respond so differently. Imagine what might have been if Miss
Thompson had responded to appearances, the ugly brown bag, the missing stones
and cheap perfume? This was a divine moment in her life and in Timmy’s. His
gift to her was greater than an imperfect bracelet and partially used perfume.
He gave her an opportunity to love, to respond out of a sense of unity instead
of separation. Her gift to him went beyond acceptance and graciousness; it was
life-transforming. Each gift blessed the giver for the rest of his life. Can
you imagine what might have been had love and oneness been withheld?
Too often
opportunities to love go by unnoticed or are even dismissed. It is not easy to
love, to move beyond the surface and appearances of life to recognize our
connection to the source of all and to each expression, each image created in
the likeness of the Source. To deeply love we do not have to accept bad
behavior or life-negating actions. Such behaviors and actions demand love to
set boundaries and enlighten. Remember, the enemy is ignorance, not the
person. Ignorance requires information, retraining and enlightenment. We can
know love and still say, “No, you cannot behave like that with me. No, I
will not be treated like that.” It is important that we set boundaries and
choose how we will be treated. It is also important to look beyond outer
appearances and remember our connection to everyone everywhere and our
spiritual duty to acknowledge the divine spirit within each one no matter how
it is veiled by human ignorance.
We do not have to create love. John said, “God is love.” (1 John 4:9) Love
is a divine principle and God is the only source. God is love and we can be
loving; we let God-love flow through us to bless the world and to draw our
good to us. To be loving we have to look at life more deeply. Nothing has ever
changed in this world until someone looked beyond appearances, looked within
and saw a dream, found inspiration and then demonstrated the courage to bring
it out into the light of day and made a difference.
Will you dive
into love? You can’t look for it outside of yourself. It can only be found
within. What love have you ever felt in your life? Only the love that has come
from the depths of you, through you to another. To do that consciously
requires in-sight, the desire to see beyond human personality. People have
personality and they manifest it in a variety of ways. Will you look deeply
enough to see and draw out the Image-likeness of God that is within them? Will
you look beyond the true enemy—ignorance—and call out the divine spirit
behind the mask? Real love is irresistible because it is God. When we are
loving we are spiritual magnets that draw the good out of others and attract
universal good to us.
When is a
wrinkled, brown paper bag not a wrinkled, brown paper bag? That’s up to you.
The grace and the good are many. But he who loves with such a love that,
through his love, some other soul has scaled the heights and there seen what
eternal life holds in store for man, has made the noblest gift of them all.
Then give me such a love in endless measure. —Anonymous
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