When closing out the book of Jonah, one has to realize that the "word" contained therein is more about Jonah than Nineveh. In fact, it is more about humans in general than some city in sin, and for sure not about an angry God! That angry God part was Jonah's distain for those God loved.
Do we believers ever model that at times!
I am not sure what is happening to me at 75, but I have a sense that God is in it. Maybe mellowing out is the stage that I am in? My Velveteen Rabbit years have finally arrived! My God, why has it taken so long!
I am convinced that life shifts occur ever so slowly. They must first be modeled and sufficiently by others, those blessed to live long enough so that we are able to watch them for our lifetime. Yet folk like that are so few, many unwilling or incapable, especially given our uber-capitalistic, overly nationalistic, extremely politicized environment.
I am privileged to have had such a model in my 98 year old Dad, his life even positively influencing my father-in-law, who lived to be 93. Actually, these two hardworking gentlemen (not always loving by nature) positively influenced each other, softened as care-providers, both having lost spouses to illness.
Watching both mellow, I am somehow certain they have at some point inquired of themselves somewhat silently as to why they did not know a purer love sooner. So am I, in this somewhat strangely spiritual window in my life!
Waking up just yesterday with my nine-year-old near, even on my pillow, his first words, "I love you, Poppi!"
I then realized that I had never shared such moments with my dad nor either one of my granddads. It just did not happen to me. Love intensifies with each generation, if one is so graced, and deeply loved by those who come before them. I realized that had been a part of that yesterday.
Yes, it dawned on me that I had broken through a generational barrier, one John Luther will never have to consider as abnormal behavior for a male, and likely he will desire those moments even sooner in life than I discovered them.
That's how life works and how love spreads, and with that, a God-given compassion that does not require the extreme measures which Jonah endured.
Perhaps one's mid-life crisis is simply the first of many "weak signals" that life is not all about success, but truly is about significance as played out in the lives of others, be they family, community, or those underserved by society. We, like Jonah are slow learners when it come to love!
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." â€â€1 Corinthians‬ â€13:13‬ â€NIV‬‬