{"id":715,"date":"2021-05-14T08:08:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T12:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=715"},"modified":"2021-05-14T08:08:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T12:08:43","slug":"the-kiss-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/the-kiss-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kiss of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bible commentator Dale Bruner, trying to describe \u201cthe deep grace of God for a flawed human race,\u201d says there is one illustration that has helped him more than any other.

It comes from Dr. Richard Selzer\u2019s experience as a surgeon, as reported in his book Mortal Lessons.  <\/em>Selzer writes:

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish.<\/em>

A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.  She will be thus from now on.<\/em>

The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh, I promise you that.  Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve.<\/em>

Her young husband is in the room. <\/em>

He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.  Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily?<\/em>

The young woman speaks.<\/em>

\u201cWill my mouth always be like this?\u201d she asks.<\/em>

\u201cYes,\u201d I say, \u201cit will.  It is because the nerve was cut.\u201d<\/em>

She nods and is silent.  But the young man smiles.<\/em>

\u201cI like it,\u201d he says.  \u201cIt is kind of cute.\u201d<\/em>

All at once I know who he is.  I understand, and I lower my gaze.  One is not bold in an encounter with a god. <\/em>

Unmindful [of me], he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.<\/em>

What does John the gospel-writer mean when he declares that God himself took on flesh and became one of us (John 1:14)? 

He means at least this: 

Whatever our condition \u2013 whatever we may have lost while making our way through this fallen world \u2013 nothing will be able to extinguish God\u2019s passion to come alongside us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bible commentator Dale Bruner, trying to describe \u201cthe deep grace of God for a flawed human race,\u201d says there is one illustration that has helped him more than any other. It comes from Dr. Richard Selzer\u2019s experience as a surgeon, as reported in his book Mortal Lessons.  Selzer writes: I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-incarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}