I am inconsistent in my film choices. I can enjoy a Hallmark Christmas film if the narrative is elevated. The others can be sickeningly sweet. I haven’t seen a new James Bond movie in years. I enjoy British who-done-its (think Agatha Christy) or any Jane Austen film except for Emma. Sorry to bash Emma but she is so conniving I can’t bear it. So I hear dialogue that is interesting to me. Recently it was “Ah love – it’s not safe”. I think that is a true statement but from ‘Death on the Nile’, where it really is not safe. God is love. We have some experience with love, in fact, with many versions – eros, storage, philia, and agape. Eros is romantic and a gift from God. Song of Solomon 1:15-16 reads, “Behold, you are fair, my love! You have dove’s eyes, Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant”! Storge is a Greek word directed at family connections. We also see this love in how God treats us. Philia is relational too and describes deep friendships, holding us together through what life throws. David and Jonathan is a good representation of philia. Agape is also Greek and shows us sacrificial love – God again in giving His only begotten Son. Only God can truly and perfectly love us. So the mention of love not being safe? I think that describes what happens when love is not conforming to God. When love is not “…longsuffering and kind, when it envies, parades itself, is puffed up and behaves rudely, when it is selfish, provoked, evil, and rejoices in iniquity. A God-like love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (from I Cor 13:4-8). The last word on this is that love never fails. Ah love…
