Last night, I read a beautiful passage by Thich Nhat Hanh from the book Mindfulness and Meaningful Work (though I read it as a passage in Spiritual Literacy by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat).
When I read this passage, I fully understood the gravity of the love that God has for us and the fact that love requires sacrifice, which made the story of Jesus even more powerful and profound in my heart. To be honest, I had never considered food in this way before. I had never stopped to consider all of the inputs, growth and change that the fruit undergoes to become the fruit that serves to nourish us. I suppose, like most of us, I’ve taken the fruit for granted and failed to see it as a labor of love by the universe. Suddenly upon reading this passage, I understood how amazingly loved I am. It’s quite odd to explain but seeing all of the effort that the universe undertakes to provide the life that then becomes part of nourishing our life amazed me and touched me in a deep way.
I wrote a poem a while back about the cells in our body loving us enough to support us even when we often take them for granted. While that struck me as amazing in a sense that even when we feel we don’t have purpose, our cells and our body say otherwise… they support us and nurture us, fighting for our survival even if we can’t see our own worth. However, this passage made me see that there is no love without sacrifice. It made me aware of how God creates and nurtures the plant life with the knowing that it will provide us nourishment. It made me see the life of the fruit as a sacrifice. A life born for the sole purpose of sacrifice, to nourish us and other animals on the planet. It made me think about the life of Jesus Christ and how his life, too, was a life born for the sole purpose of sacrifice… to show us what pure Godly love was, there had to be a sacrifice.
When reading the Bible, I initially saw Jesus’ death as symbolic of people’s continual rejection of God despite all of God’s love for us. I saw it as heartbreaking, and it made me vow to not intentionally reject God ever again in my own life. It made me fall in love with God and vow to show God love back. I saw it as a love story with a really sad ending in a way… that despite the unconditional love and the unconditional chances that God kept giving humanity, humans just didn’t fully understand or appreciate this and still crucified God’s goodness. I still see this meaning in it, but now I understand why Jesus kept saying that he must make the sacrifice. I don’t think this resonated so deeply until I read the passage by Thich Nhat Hanh. The fact that a fruits purpose is to live to serve us and nourish us and other animal life made me reflect on the purpose of my own life. It made me think about service and sacrifice and in so doing, it brought to mind Jesus. In order to show us how much he loved us, he had to sacrifice.
I’m not recommending that we all go out and martyr ourselves, but I am simply suggesting that we take note of how deeply we are loved and start appreciating all of the love that is shown us in daily practices such as fully enjoying the fruit as we eat it, knowing that it’s life was also a sacrifice of love. I’m suggesting, that when looking at the house that was built of the wood of trees, that we stop to appreciate with reverence, the sacrificed life of the trees to provide our shelter. I’m suggesting that when you eat your next cheeseburger, that you reflect on the life of the animal that was created and died so that you could be nourished. When you sit on your leather couch, I’m urging you to thank the animal for giving you the skin off it’s back so that you can be comfortable and appreciate the aesthetics in your living room. When you look at the beautiful flowers presented to you by your partner, I pray that you’ll also see the flowers themselves as a creation of love and another sacrifice made in the love of God. I’m simply urging you to think more deeply about all that has been given to you out of pure love that you may be failing to notice or appreciate.
Love surrounds us, it is in us and around us. All we need to do is look and pray that we have eyes to see more deeply. All we need to do is simply remember. I pray that you have eyes to see and in seeing that you have a desire also, to make sacrifices out of love.
What are some examples you’ve found of love and sacrifice in this world? How do you appreciate the love showed to you? Share your thoughts in the comments section.