There is a reason our heart sometimes has its reasons that reason knows not of. We are not disembodied minds. We are not often motivated by something as sterile as the conclusion to a syllogism. Neither are those outside the kingdom. We are demonstrating our own worldliness when we think that what the world needs is to learn how to think like us. Because they bear the image of God, even in their sin they want things to make sense, to live in a world of truth and coherency. Because they bear the image of God, even in their sin they want things to be just, to live in a world of law and fairness.
Because they bear the image of God, however, even in their sin they want to take in and be taken in by beauty, to live in a world both stirring and sublime. Because we are being remade into the image of our risen Husband, we are called to live, as individuals and in community, lives marked by truth, goodness and beauty. Which is just another way of saying we are to be a city on a hill.
Consider the experience of Ruth. When her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law were all dead, it made perfect sense for her mother-in-law to tell Ruth and Orpah to go back to their own mothers and find a new husband. Orpah saw the sense in it herself. The syllogism led to that decision. The beauty of Naomi, and the promised beauty of the people of God in the Promised Land led Ruth to a better answer. Why does Ruth insist to her mother-in-law, “Whither thou goest I will go?” Because she had experienced grace and beauty in Naomi, and likely in Elimilech, Chilion and Mahlon. Why does Ruth insist, “Your people will be my people?” Because she learned from Naomi that she came from a land where widows were protected and provided for, where they were safe. Why does Ruth cry out, “Your God will be my God?” Because she knew that He was responsible for the first two things. It was His law that made Israel a welcoming land, and His grace that made Naomi a warm blessing.
Jesus said, “By this will all know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The proof is not in the pudding but the bonding. As we bicker with each other, snipe and snark, we lie about our Redeemer. As we are knit together inside the kingdom, as we love one another well, the very glory of the trinity shines forth. As we carry one anothers’ burdens, as we delight in one another, as we live out the one anothers in our daily lives we offer life to the walking dead all about us.
We are called to commemorate, communicate, cultivate the love of Christ within the church, knowing such He uses to call into His communion those yet outside the kingdom. May He find His bride beautiful.