Love Creates

I learned in life that as an adult I have the power and responsibility to live the life that I want to live.  While there are many things that are out of my control things that I must trust, have faith and leave to God’s providence – I also have learned that many things are within my reach and realm of duty and responsibility.  When God created us He gave us work and leadership over His entire creation- He trusted us enough to do great things.  While He could have done everything for us, like a good parent He made things in a manner that helps build confidence in ourselves, others and in God through the effort we put in our works.  As we excel in life, overcoming challenges, making smart choices and working hard in our assigned lot- trust in ourselves, in others and in God also develops.  To put it simply, love creates.  God is love, out of His perfect love we come into existence- we are products of heavenly love – in Christ we are told to imitate God to become more like Christ. Thus, in our humanity we too must imitate our Creator and create.  We create better versions of ourselves, we build stronger relationships with creation, with others and with God because He created us for relationship. In the creation accounts in Genesis, we are told that after God created He was happy with everything that He created.  Every day after His new creation He would sit back, relax, and contemplate His creation.  And every day He liked what He saw- He was satisfied and happy with His work.  The only time when the Bible mentions that God saw something wrong or rather lacking was when He looked at Adam and saw Adam’s loneliness.  Thus, He created a helper - a companion for Adam, someone like him.  When Adam saw Eve, he was beyond ecstatic, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” he exclaims!  And God seeing that all was good blesses man and gives him the commission to create- “be fruitful and multiply.”

In human terms we speak of growth with another when we say, “I want someone to grow old with.”  But what does that mean?  Does it mean I want someone that will physically age with me?  Or do we mean someone who will grow individually and with me as we journey through life together?  While it’s great to have a companion- if two people aren’t growing together things will fizzle out because love creates.  In the biblical account of Peter and Jesus, we see a great example of love growing. Peter goes from a friendly type of love (philia) to an unconditional, perfect love (agape) because Peter is open to growth and Jesus’ patient love waits for him to finally catch up.  Peter’s openness and desire to become more like Christ – his ability to grow enables the relationship between himself and Christ to thrive.  So great is their connection that God trusts him with specific authority, authority to govern the house of God and the keys of the kingdom. 

In our own humanity we see love creating when two people get married their love creates another human being.  From the love of two people a baby is born.  However, before that takes place there’s a simpler path of creation between two- it’s a relational edification.  First, there’s this period of infatuation when both feel a strong attraction towards the other, followed by a period of honesty and getting to know each other as we truly are or developing a strong friendship, then comes a period of discernment of accepting that you are interested in this special person as something more than a friend, followed by courting, engagement and marriage.  The rhythm of growth is something that depends on the two people involved and finding a person to move in synchronization with takes time and patience.  If two people haven't found their rhythm, but both demonstrate a willingness to work together to find it - that's still creating. Unlike God's ability to create perfectly, our humanness means that our creations will sometimes need development, redrafting, editing and even reconstruction.  Yet, in a matter of two teamwork is needed (both need to grow) otherwise harmony is lost or never achieved.