The Way of Love Between Us.

Guess How Much I Love You is a wonderful book written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram, published in 1994, in the United Kingdom by Walker Books and in 1995, in the United States by its subsidiary Candlewick Press.  It is a well-known book that I have read to both my children when they were little.

Little Nutbrown Hare was trying to say he loved Big Nutbrown Hare more than Big Nutbrown Hare loved him. He tried all kinds of ways to show how much he loved Big Nutbrown Hare. He reached out as wide as he could reach. He reached up as high as he could. He turned himself upside down and stretched out his feet. He even tried jumping in the air as high as he could jump. No matter what he did to show how much he loved Big Nutbrown Hare, guess what? Big Nutbrown Hare loved him that much more. 

Finally, Little Nutbrown hare says he loves Big Nutbrown Hare all the way to the moon. That's a really long way. That's 384,400 km. Do you know how far that is? Big Nutbrown Hare even admits that's a whole lot of love. But Big Nutbrown Hare leans in close to a sleeping Little Nutbrown Hare, and whispers that he loves Little Nutbrown Hare all the way to the moon and back.  It is a story that expresses the infinite love between two people (or Nutbrown Hares) and the way they make it known to each other. 

In the Gospel of John chapter 14:14-20…
Jesus is speaking to the disciples and I hear him trying to express that The Way of Love is the uniting thread between God, Jesus, and us.  That our activities in loving each other, the activities of love that Jesus has taught us, makes God known.  Loving each other can sometimes be hard.  But the type of love Jesus talks about is infinite and limitless and inclusive. The type of love that loves to the moon and back and back again. 

St. Augustine’s explanation of the Trinity is a good example of this relationship that is The Way of Love between God, Humanity and Spirit. He likened the Trinity to God the lover, Jesus the Beloved and the Holy Spirit, the love that unites them or the love in-between us.   This is the unity Jesus points us towards.  God the Love, Humanity the Beloved and the Love that unites us.
The Holy Spirit we’re waiting for is in the sharing of love, living in the Way of Love, and  the love in between us made fully known.  
A love that is far greater than to the moon and back and back again and back and...well, you get it.

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