No matter how deeply others know us, there are depths of our experience that no one can touch. There is a limit to the possible communion with another. We never completely open up our nature to even our nearest and dearest.
In spite of ourselves, something is kept back. It is not that we are untrue in this, and hide our inner self, but simply that we are unable to reveal ourselves entirely. There is a bitterness of the heart that only the heart knows; there is a joy of the heart with which no stranger can meddle; there is a boundary beyond which even a friend who is as our own soul becomes a stranger.
Human friendship has limits because of the real greatness of man. We are too big to be quite comprehended by another. There is always something in us left unexplained and unexplored. We do not even know ourselves, much less can another hope to probe into the recesses of our being… Man’s limitation is God’s occasion. Only God can fully satisfy the hungry heart of man.
This is the love we long for, the love we crave. Augustine said it well, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”
No one can love us like God can love us. I can’t love anyone like this. I can’t provide this kind of love for others. But God can.
Look at yourself, for you have a reason to praise God today! You are loved, cherished, valued, treasured, even doted over – with all your possibilities and all your weaknesses. This knowledge uplifts and inspires us.
We need to learn and embrace this in order that may not only rest in this love, but in order that we might reflect it to others.
May we come to treasure all those whom God treasures. And, in the words of Rob Bell, “May your whole life become a response to the truth that you’ve always been loved, you are loved, and you always will be loved. And may you know, may you know deep in the depths of your soul, that there’s nothing you could ever do to make Him love you less.”
From before time and into eternity, an ancient and yet ever new love has sung to you:
Longer than there’ve been fishes in the ocean
Higher than any bird ever flew
Longer than there’ve been stars up in the heavens
I’ve been in love with you.
Only God could sing such lyrics and truly mean them. How will you respond to this love? (RICHARD J. VINCENT)