Die Liefde is onpeilbaar, want die Liefde is so Groot.

Een van die aangrypendste aanhalings wat ek ooit oor die liefde gelees het, was in die dagboek van ds Luckhoff toe hy gepraat het van die onpeilbaarheid van die liefde van ‘n ma vir haar kind. Hy het vele voorbeelde daarvan in die konsentrasie-kamp gesien. In die mees haglike omstandighede het ma’s met eindelose liefde by hul kinders gewaak en vir hulle versorg.

Hy skryf oor liefde as die grootste, maar ook  as die mees verborge van alle dinge. Dit word uitgegiet oor hulle wat die swakstes onder die swakkes is. Onverdiend word dit ryklik uitgedeel. Hoekom sal niemand weet nie. Waarom mense hulself sonder om hulself in ag te neem, so volledig uit liefde aan ander gee, kan nie verstaan of uitgewerk word nie.  Dit weerstaan enige poging tot interpretasie.

Hy skryf (in Engels) oor hoe hy, onbegrypend, ma’s gesien het wat waak langs die sterfbed van hul uitgeteerde kinders:

Explain it that a mother can cling to a helpless, idiotic, deformed boy for fourteen years, and feed him mouth to mouth! Explain that a mother can sit up night and day, day and night, with a sick child! Look at those deep-set eyes, sorrow-sunken, their care-wornness, and tell me what is this Love that endureth all things!”

Wat is hierdie liefde wat alles verduur? Wat 'n mens nie kan peil nie?

Hieraan dink ek toe ek onlangs (in ‘n artikel van Jos Huls) lees van Kierkegaard se merkwaardige opmerkings oor die liefde. Ek haal net een deel van Kierkegaard se skrywe aan. 

Toe ek dit lees, besef ek dat Kierkegaard op sy manier dieselfde skryf as Paulus in 1 Korintiërs 13 en dieselfde verwonderde uitroep as Luckhoff maak.

En dit laat my selfs meer bedink: as ons nie die liefde kan peil nie, as dit so verborge, bo ons begrip is, want ons sien net die weerkaatsing daarvan, is dit omdat die Liefde te groot is vir ons verstand om te peil.

En as hierdie liefde te groot is, hoe groot is die Liefde van God nie.

Hier is Kierkegaard se gedagtes:

Where does love come from, where does it have its origin and its source, where is the place it has its abode from which it flows? Yes, this place is hidden or is secret. There is a place in a person's innermost being; from this place flows the life of love, for “from the heart flows life.” 

But you cannot see this place; however deeply you penetrate, the origin eludes you in remoteness and hiddenness. Even when you have penetrated furthest in, the origin is always still a bit further in, like the source of the spring that is further away just when you are closest to it. 

From this place flows love along many paths, but along none of these paths can you force your way into its hidden origin. Just as God dwells in a light from which flows every ray that illuminates the world, yet no one can force his way along these paths in order to see God, since the paths of light turn into darkness when one turns toward the light – so love dwells in hiding or is hidden in the innermost being.

Love's hidden life is in the innermost being, unfathomable, and then in turn is in an unfathomable connectedness with all existence. Just as the quiet lake originates deep down in hidden springs no eye has seen, so also does a person’s love originate even more deeply in God’s love. If there were no gushing spring at the bottom, if God were not love, then there would be neither the little lake nor a human being’s love. 

Just as the quiet lake originates darkly in the deep spring, so a human being’s love originates mysteriously in God’s love. Just as the quiet lake invites you to contemplate it but by the reflected image of darkness prevents you from seeing through it, so also the mysterious origin of love in God’s love prevents you from seeing its ground. When you think that you see it, you are deceived by a reflected image, as if that which only hides the deeper ground were the ground. Just as the lid of a clever secret compartment, for the very purpose of completely hiding the compartment, looks as if it were the bottom, so also that which only covers what is even deeper deceptively appears to be the depths of the ground.