Saints

In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.

—Frederick Buechner

This quote is from a book called, "Love Feast". Buechner adequately describes how ordinary saints create a love feast for others in words and simple acts of kindness. There are not random acts of kindness but intentional acts of kindness that flow out of a heart of love. Intentional acts of love flow out of God's affectionate love towards us. Truly it is such a delight that the Scripture declares, "God sings his love over us." Buechner calls this God's holy flirtation with the world. The great prophetic insight Buechner shares is not that God delights in us but that he drops us into the middle of this courtship as his handkerchief. 

I still remember the hype and the commotion when the movie "Love Story" hit the theaters.  It was a reminder that with the Vietnam War abroad, and the war on racism at home, people needed love stories. More than ever people wanted someone to begin to try to tell the story of a love that was older than the sea. About the same time Sir Paul McCarthy intoned, "You would  think that people would have had enough of silly love songs. But I look around me and I see it isn't so. Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs. And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know, cause here I go again. I love you, I love you..." No, the movie "Love Story" and the song "Silly Love Songs" reminded us that we all still need love stories. God's love story is an eternal holy flirtation with the world and his promise is that he will continue to drop handkerchiefs (saints) to convey that love until the end of time. In an unlikely love story called "Moulan Rouge" we see the broken and the outcast in an extraordinary light and we see the desire for deep and satisfying love - love of the heart. In that movie we hear these words: "Never knew I could feel like this, like I've never seen the sky before...Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?  Telling me to give you everything; seasons may change, winter to spring but I love you until the end of time. Come what may, Come what may, I will love you until my dying day. Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place; suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace; suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste. It all revolves around you and there's no mountain too high, no river too wide, sing out this song and I'll be there by your side. Storm clouds may gather, and stars may collide but I love you until the end of time."

This song is filled with the gospel, filled with God's flirtation with the world, and filled with enough love to last us until the end of time. In this epic love story God drops handkerchiefs and involves us in this endless love. We get to be loved and part of the love story - that really is not silly at all. I think I can hear God saying, "Hear I go again..."!