If I asked you what you love about your spouse or other family member, you’d likely give me a few specific examples.  In one of my favorite songs, Jaron sings:

…
You say honey give me roses but dont buy red,
You need 46 pillows all over the bed.
Guess every punch line before its said.
…
You laugh at the garden that we grow in the lawn,
Drink coffee in the kitchen with no make up on.
Sing all the wrong words to my favorite songs,
You’re beautiful, and that’s beautiful.
You got lines on your face from sleeping on me,
Call me at work cause you lost your key,
You go to buy a dog and you come home with three.
… *

In this song, Jaron tells how it’s the relationship and intimate knowledge that causes him to love.  In her book Super, Natural Christians, McFague confirms this idea saying:

It is a way of seeing, a kind of paying attention, that thrives on differences and detail.  It is also an interactive kind of knowing– the knower must be open to the known, be sympathetic to, and engaged by the known.  It is a knowing that is infused with loving, a love that wants to know more. **

McFague is talking about paying close attention to nature to learn to love nature, but this idea extends to people as well.  We learn to see people as individuals and to love and care for people by getting to know the particularities of who they are.  We learn to love people who are different from us by getting to know them.  Once we know them, we cannot ignore their human-ness.  We discover that no matter how different from us they may be, they, too, are human beings and beloved children of God.  They, too, are our brothers and sisters.  So, we take time to get to know them and marvel at their particularities, learning to love them as individuals.

Learn from children.  Young children delight in their discovery of the world around them and regard all people as equal and potential friends.  Read Matthew 18:1-4, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally!

Annie

*Jaron, That’s Beautiful To Me,© 2010 Jaronwood Records, Compact disc.

**Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature (Augsburg Fortress: Minneapolis, 1997), 30.