It amazes me still how something so delicate can yet be so strong.
The stars keep me company. The great redwoods that reach to the sky are my great ceiling like the cathedral of St. Peter's. The grass beneath me like the soft rugs of a rich man's house. Nature, God's creation, beckons me into summer nights to experience God's arms wrapped gently around me in the soft breeze.
The only meaning Nature has comes from the acknowledgement that it is God's handiwork. All else that have come throughout the ages to support, to justify, to vindicate man's claim on Nature outside of this reality only either ends in pagan mysticism, strangely mislabeled "Christian mysticism", or vanity. There is not one jot or iota that can justify our enjoyment of Nature except that God has made it.
When I get to Heaven, Jesus will hold me in His arms for a very long time upon entering. He has promised me that I will be in His inner circle, I believe. Heaven to me won't be the rolling hills of endless countryside or crystal seas where dolphins splash with eternal joy or flying on eagle-like creatures or even merely sitting beside a babbling brook with old friends and new; Heaven will be where Jesus is for that is where love is! How could I endure Heaven if I didn't know the Love of Christ? All the celebrations and spontaneous laughter I will isolate from if I didn't know the love of Christ first-hand. He will hold me everyday and wipe away every tear that falls on my unstained white robe. He will comfort me. I have finally learned again to see with my heart.
The treasure that the merchant found in the field and for joy sold all he had to possess the field and treasure within is the very heart of Jesus. That is the only joy that can fish and catch the human heart. He promises to make us fishers of men if we follow Him. How can we follow Him without love? For it profits us nothing if we don't have love. Love constrains us, sets us free from fear, sets us free to die for others. Hallelujah! How great is the heart of God! Let us truly magnify the heart of God with our mouths and hearts!
For this we shall have to give up the love of money and all the worries and dealings of this world. It is the love of money that made the Pharisees' hearts cold and unable to grasp what Jesus was all about.
For this we shall have to give up the love of intellect. The Devil is a liar, a cheat and a thief, for while I could not find love, he offered me the promise of endless intelligence--in short, to seek after being a genius since love wasn't available. I was only six. For 33 years he has cheated me out of love from others and from God especially. Intellectual activities were my escape, my food, rather than having God's will as my food and be all and end all. Don't fall into this trap, brothers and sisters, for it is subtle and therein lies the danger. Let me state clearly once for all that Theology without love is empty swagger and corrupted Christianity, if you can at all call it Christianity. When the powers are shaken, these three things remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. But, as Paul states, the greatest of these is Love.
I can hardly contain my joy! The heart of the gospel is the love of Christ, so much so that He died on the cursed tree to become the reconciliation between us and God, so that we might have eternal life. What greater love than that is there?
