Love unites

John 17 : 20 - 26

..that the love with which You have loved me may be in them, and I in them...

So simple yet not so simple - the love of God in our hearts unites us with others. "Love one another as I have loved you". Plenty has been written about such unity - especially as we still experience so much disunity even among Christians. Perhaps one of the contributing factors is that we allow our differences to loom so large that they divide us - any love and mutual acceptance flies out the window. My own experience is how doctrine divides - and how heated the arguments get, without love.

The love of God also unites us within ourselves. Without this 'glue' we are fragmented in ourselves and are unable to find and integrate the 'true selves' we are called to be.

The movie I watched last Saturday - Billy Elliot - showed how Billy was strengthened by the memory of his deceased mother and the words of her letter to him. He knew the words by heart - he must have read those precious words many, many times. In that way, his sorrow at the loss was redeemed. He said he missed her but was not sad (perhaps his own way of expressing healthy loss that does not lead to despair) This reminded me how God's love can also be stored in our hearts to strengthen and console us- and we do have many, many words from him, from his "love letters" to us.