Human Love : God's Love (Analogy)

I am by no means a theologian or even close to claiming one. But sometimes I develop ideas that may be interpreted as theology. The following is one of such ideas -- derived through my experiences of pursing Mandy. It's about the similarities between the dynamics of pursing a human interest and possibly with how God pursues us.

I shared this with a close friend last month and he said it was interesting. Just thought that I would share it with all of you (imaginary audience?) too.

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First the argument I will make is this: liking someone who doesn't really like you back is analogous to...God's love for us. Although this analogy holds true only for a fraction of the whole (of course), it has some legitimacy.

The main explanation is that when we like someone (the more appropriate term may be "fall in love"), we begin to care about this other person's life so much more. This special someone, the object of our affections, often comes into our thoughts and, if our affections are sincere, the end-goal of our actions will evolve into bringing happiness to this individual. Because when this person is happy, we inevitably become happy ourselves -- happiness begets happiness, joy upon joy. For those who have experienced this feeling, it's very much like a "high" (nothing associated with drugs, but strictly a state of mind). And even if we are rejected, these sentiments can linger and sometimes manifest into something even deeper (e.g. limerence).

The reason I think these human sentiment is analogous to God's love for us is due to our ignorance and, sometimes, even rejection of His love. God's love is unconditional for us and He always cares about us, but we can forget about this fact when temporal difficulties stray into our life. We are also prone to not realizing the depth of this love -- one that is full of grace and even ready to welcome us back with open arms (e.g. story of the prodigal son). In short, God loves us and we often do not realize it. Nor perhaps realize the depth of this love.

So you may begin how the analogy is starting to shape together. Just as the human object of our affections may be ignorant or even downright reject us, we similarly do the same to God. More disturbingly, the latter occurs much more frequent than the former. Is not the most important commandment "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength?" If so, then how often do we give God this undivided attention and worshipful praise He has commanded? For myself, the truth is my thoughts are on God only in moments of prayer or in fellowship with other Christians. The fact that God still loves us despite of our ignorance/rejection speaks volumes of the power of His grace, compassion, and also of the resurrection power.

Now, I can be quite wrong in conjuring this analogy. God's love resembles little of our human affections for one another. God's love is not prone to the imperfections that sin can perpetrate. But I think it is a very interesting analogy nonetheless -- one that allows me to understand a spiritual truth through human experiences. Perhaps more importantly, it brought awareness into an area which needs to be changed.