Interstellar
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.”
John 14:15-17
“This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:17
Dear Friends,
I watched the movie Interstellar a few nights ago. It’s full of concepts that make my mind hurt and brain ooze out my ears—other galaxies, quantum physics, string theory. As I watched, I began to think about the vast expansiveness of the universe and how small I am, immediately feeling off balance like I’m standing on quaky-slippery ground. Each planet’s stark desolation—an isolated lonely wilderness of focused beauty, like every detail mattered even there—sacred. And just as I thought I would slip into some other world with my mind spiraling into what is and what isn’t, the main character, lost in abandoned regret and separated from his deepest relationships, spoke words truer than the great unknown: it’s love that transcends the dimensions of space and time.
When all is lost, when everything crumbles, when nothing makes sense and it feels like your brain might ooze out of your ears, when hope is laughably bleak, it’s love that transcends everything else. Why is this truth so simple and yet so hard to believe? It’s the only thing that truly makes sense and yet seemingly impossible to grasp. v c
Friends, we are not alone in the vast expansiveness of this universe. There is an all-encompassing, expansive Love that transcends the dimensions of space and time. The womb-like Love of God exists in the greatest beyond to the smallest particle. I’ve tasted it in warm sourdough bread. I’ve smelled it in fresh cut grass. I’ve felt it in the sun’s gentle rays on my back. I’ve heard it in the singing leaves dancing around my feet. I’ve seen it in every face when I look for it—that Love is there when I’m looking for it. But I often don’t have eyes to see, ears to hear, a tongue to taste. Friends, that Love never left but I often forget to pay attention.
The desolate wilderness is breathtakingly full of Love when I dare to pay attention. Sometimes it takes a Spirit of truth to guide me into those spaces of desolation for the world and my mind to quiet. At first I can only hear the buzzing in my ears, but when I give it a moment, when time slows down and I can slow my breath—listen!
Can you hear it? Can you taste it and see it? Oh friends, can you feel the expansive truth of Love that transcends time and space from the deepest parts of the universe into the smallest particle of you?
Oh may we love each microscopic particle of ourselves. May the greatest of Love grow beyond measure. And while much has been stripped away, may we be ever expanding into the greatest command: Love.
With (love),
Bethany