Beyond First Love: No Greater Love

Introduction

This theme, “no greater love,” is the simple concept that if humans really cherish this beautiful world, they will gladly give anything to save it. Nothing is more precious; nothing is of a higher priority. It is like the groom’s promise to his bride, to forsake all else because she is the one pearl of great price in all the world, and he would do anything for her. It is time now, a chance for humankind to be that groom. It is her time now, this beloved world’s chance to shine and be the center of every attention. This is her Day.

Instead, the human species is like an unfaithful husband with a penchant for narcissism (Freud, 1957). The species is a just a self-propagating paternalism whose spouse (the planet) is no more than an endearing trophy reminiscent of his stature and success (Meinecke, 2018c). Humans are like a loveless parent with an authoritarian parenting style (Darling, 1999). Humans are more concerned with using their offspring to agitate for the right to compete with men and control the means of reproduction—than to express a simple gratitude and mercy for those offspring (Goldberg, 2009; Meinecke, 2017). It does not seem urgent any more to simply hope to pass down a memory of how much one could not help but love one’s husband, one’s wife, one’s children, one’s world, while briefly here—so that, perchance, they might pass down their love for one another too (John 13:34; Gopnik, 2016). Humans put their doctrine first; they put themselves first; they put their estates first; they do not seem inclined to ask their lovely bride if she would like to be first for a change. Humans are a species whose own “prosperity” and “wellness” is more dear to them than the well-being of their beloved world. they would rather put their species’ greed first (the craving for global sovereignty and imperishable prosperity of just one species), and let that discrete infinity of basic needs requested by every other species (save their own), glean what means for group survival or personal value they may (Lev. 19:10; Rieber, 1983; Ruth 2:10). Human vows are like those of a dissembling bachelor at the honest altar of his virgin bride, withholding his ability to give himself fully to save his beloved wife, so that he may simply wed another when this one wears out (Steinbeck, 2003). Though humans have more wealth and more options than any other creature on the planet, they make every other creature sign a prenuptial covenant before they vow to demonstrate their love for them at all.

But imagine a People who were willing to sacrifice their own kind to save Life (in all its kinds) from perishing? Isn’t that a purpose worth setting aside these differences? Imagine a love so great, that a simple act of faith might save the world from its victor’s folly? Let all things great and small sit down and reason together: No greater love hath any species than to lay down its pride for its pearl of great price—this sapphire earring the grateful call Home (John 15:13; Isa. 1:18; Matt. 13:46). Think about it: it’s the only home for every species living today (so far as anyone knows), not just the home of human beings. Though humans may build fleets of rockets to save themselves from the coming deluge of commodities and pollutants, no ark could begin to carry the diversity of lifeforms every bit as urgent to survive as humans—but unable to even build a life raft once humans depart, let alone a rocket to bear their young to safety (Bradbury, 2001). Humans would make room in their arks for their wisdom (an intellectual posada), but not for their faceless children (no posada). What does that say about the human species?