Hesed as Storge as Agape

One of the lowest levels of the brain is devoted to deciphering whether others are glad to see us.

Everything else we think or feel builds upon that interpretation.

If I don’t believe you rejoice in my presence, I will naturally either become desperate for your approval, or find ways to denigrate the worth of your opinion.

This is how we sort ourselves into tribes.
This is how we feel safe.
This is how… we crucify Christ, by making the gospel of no value.

Because Christ did not just remind us to love our neighbors as ourselves, as important as that is.
Even pagans in traditional cultures know (and practice) that kind of love.

He called us to love our enemies.
He called us to love one another
As He has loved us
Laying down our lives
For those who are still sinners.

It is profoundly unnatural
Or perhaps supernatural
To respond with gladness
To someone who does not
Delight to see me

Unless…
We know a secret
That they don’t.

That they are a part of our tribe.
That our Father has already adopted them into our family.
That He already has a plan to make them
One of us.
And we
Are a part of that plan.

To see-with-gladness those who oppose, or even despise, us
Is to see God
In them
In Christ, loving me, loving them
Transcendentally