The Value of Love

The other day I was approached in downtown Saint Paul on my way to work.  This fact is not shocking.  There are often people around here looking for money or a cigarette.  This one eventually spat out, "God loves you," when I wouldn't stop for him.

It's too bad I was in a hurry.  I would have stopped for that.  Religion is something I think about a lot, and I would have been happy to share my thoughts on the subject.  Instead I let him know that he's not real, and moved on.

But he did get me thinking.  Assuming there is a god and he does love me, you then need to ask an important question.  "Why?"  I love a number of people to some degree.  Like everything in my life, I do it for reasons.  I love them for who they are.  At least I love them for who I perceive them to be.

Assuming there is a god, and he has some idea of who I am, is that why he loves me?  Does he love me who who I am, or does he love everyone?  How does this man know that his god loves me unless his god does love everyone?  And if his god loves everyone, regardless of who they are, then how could you say that he loves me for who I am?

Perhaps he does not make that claim.  But then you have to wonder about the value of the love of someone who you've never met, and loves everyone indiscriminately.  I've never been in love, but I'm sure it would be critical that I love her for who she is, and she feel the same.  If she loved everyone indiscriminately, than this would be impossible.  What kind of relationship could someone have who doesn't care about who a person is as an individual?  Could you call that a personal relationship?

How can anyone really value unconditional love?