Perfectly Free

Recently, my neighbour went away for a week or so, and before he left he told me to take and eat any tomatoes that ripen while he was away. So, I did. They were unusually sweet and juicy. The finest toasted tomato sandwich that I’ve had in years.

We are blessed to live in such a beautiful and bountiful part of God’s creation. It is a short growing season and yet we manage to create great wealth: so much that we can throw away (experts estimate) a quarter of what we buy. The Island cup, as it were, runneth over. Yet, so many people, even here, and around the world go without. And not just a little bit, but a great deal.

I read recently that the chief characteristic of God is freedom. No matter what cruelty we are capable of, such as nailing Jesus to a cross, God, in God’s perfect freedom, is still able to choose to love us. No matter how strange that might seem to us, God is free to be loving, and just of us, but of people that might be our enemies.

Oh how I long for that perfect freedom: that no matter what trials and trouble I face in the run of a day, to act, not out of fear or anger, but with courage and love.

The love of God, born of that perfect freedom falls on us like manna from heaven, like snow, like rain, covering every bit of creation and every one of us.

Great! So, we have store-houses filled to overflowing with God’s love. What now? It may not be there, come the morning. Well, of course it will be there, or at least, there will be more love for us to gather. It overflows. Rather than drowning in the love of God, let’s share it. And one way of sharing God’s love is by sharing the richness we enjoy.

We are perfectly free (the cross has set us free), to choose generosity over greed; love over hate; knowledge over fear. Well, we are perfectly free, but we may not act so. Being a part of a gathered community strengthens us for the service of perfect freedom. Gathered together we are free and capable to do God’s will of love.