God's Dominoes

I love watching my grandson play with the dominoes, as he stacks them up into towers and then lines them up to make a train. Then I remember a story that I saw on the television about a school that was raising money for the earthquake relief effort in Haiti.  As part of the fundraiser, the children in the school lined up dominoes all throughout a huge room.  Once they were set, someone touched the first domino.  As the first one fell, it hit the second, the second hit the third, and so on.  I love to watch them fall to see what it looks like.

Through the act of touching just one domino, a chain reaction happened and the result of this chain reaction was to reveal an incredibly beautiful design that was not readily seen until each domino had touched another.  They called the fundraising event “a chain of love.” 

                                                      

I thought the way the falling dominoes created a design was pretty cool.  I’m always impressed with someone who has the vision to be able to see an end result, take a pile of raw materials, and turn them into a work of art. Just at that moment, I felt like I was nudged on the shoulder by God.  I had a feeling He was trying to tell me something. 

“We are His dominoes…”

I started to think about these words and after a few minutes I suddenly realized what they meant: God had created a “chain of love” as well.  God’s “chain of love” is a love that flows from Him to us and from us to each other.  And, just like those dominoes that the students used to create their masterpiece, we are God’s dominoes that, once we are able to touch each other with God’s love, will reveal a beautiful masterpiece that God has designed.  So now I needed an answer: as one of God’s “dominoes” what is expected of me?

In the Bible, Matthew tells us about the time when an expert of the law questioned Jesus about God’s commandments.  This expert asked Jesus: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"  Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40)

In other words, there are two things Jesus asked of us:  1. Love God.   2. Love each other

It may sound funny but even though these are great words, unless I put these words into action, they are nothing more than words.  How do I do this?  How do I learn to put these words into action?  How do I learn to love the way Jesus wants me to love?

I need to love as God loves.  It will be through this Godly love that I could touch others and help continue God’s “chain of love”.  But before I can love like Him, I need to understand His love.  I need to learn how I could emulate God’s love and touch others with the same love that God has shown and touched me with.  Grab your Bible, now lets see what it says about God’s love for us.

God’s love is unconditional:  To love unconditionally is to love without attaching any strings to that love: to love someone for who and what they are now and to love them without expecting anything in return. God’s love is given to us without any conditions.  He doesn’t say I will love you if you do not sin or I will love you when you praise me more.  If fact, His love is just the opposite.  His love is given to us even though we might be people that might not be deserving of His love.

Romans 5:8 tells us: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God knew we were sinners.  He didn’t tell us that He would send His Son to us if we stopped sinning.  Rather, He said to us I will send my Son to you BECAUSE we were sinners.  He didn’t place any conditions on sending His Son to save us.  Even after He did send His Son to save us, He didn’t EXPECT us to not be sinners; rather, He knew we would still be sinners.  But for those who want to become closer to Him, He sent His Son to us as a way to Him.  No conditions – just love.

God’s love is eternal:   Psalm 136:1 tells us: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.”

Can you think of anyone that you have loved or might love forever?  Maybe the closest we get would be our children.  At times, we might get very mad at them and not like what they do but we still love them.  We are willing to forgive them and take them back if they do something wrong.  Isn’t it the same with God?  We are His children and He loves us with the love of a parent for their child.

But, even though we might love our children forever, God’s love still transcends this.  He loved us before we were even born.  He knew who we were and He knew what we were to become long before our parents ever thought about us.  And He will love us long after we are gone from this physical world.  God’s love is forever – it never ends.

God’s love is forgiving:  How many times have we just given up on someone because of something they have done or just who they are?  How many times has someone made you mad and you have written them off and never wanted anything to do with them again?  No matter who we are or what we have done, God loves us so much that He will always be waiting for us to come back to Him.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep in which he asks what would someone do if they had 100 sheep but lost one?  He answers that the shepherd would leave the 99 to find the lost one, and once the lost one is found he joyfully brings it home and celebrates the return of the one sheep with his friends.

Jesus further says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7)

If we are lost, God will come looking for us.  If it might seem that we are taking too long getting back to Him, He will wait for us.   If we feel that we might have separated ourselves from Him because of our own actions, He will forgive us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:19)  We need to learn to be able to forgive as God does.  If God can forgive, why can’t we?

God’s love is immeasurable:  God has so much love for us that there is no way to measure it.  He has made the ultimate sacrifice for us:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16)

No one is asking us to sacrifice our children for each other, but imagine if we could love each other so much that we would be willing to give up anything we had for each other?  

We are told we are created in God’s image.  If this is true, shouldn’t I be able to love like God?  Shouldn’t my love be unconditional, eternal, forgiving, and immeasurable? I don’t know because God’s love is also perfect and I am not perfect.  But I can try. 

What if we all tried to emulate God’s love in these ways?  It could lead to God’s “chain of love” really happening here and now.  Our “chain of love” begins with God and His love for us.  How great is His love for us?  He reached out and sent His Son to us.  Jesus has shown us that there is a “chain of love” which flows from God, through Jesus, to each of us, and then from us to our fellow man.

Sometimes our continuing His “chain of love” has been successful, other times not.  And when it was not, the reason for it not being successful lies directly with us.  Man has rebelled and turned from God more times than we could count; yet, God continually reaches out to us with His love.

The schoolchildren’s dominoes were set up so perfectly that they couldn’t do anything but fall into each other and create the beautiful picture from their chain reaction; however, what would have happened to the schoolchildren’s design if one domino fell out of place?  That domino would have not touched another and the whole chain reaction would have stopped.

God has set us up in a way that guarantees the outcome of our touching each other will create a beautiful design: God’s love doesn’t touch just one person like that first domino did - God’s love reaches out to and touches everyone.  Any one of us has the ability to set off and perpetuate God’s chain reaction.  We need to start and keep God’s “chain of love” moving.  Everyday we need to practice loving like God loves.  We need to learn to love as big as God loves.

Unlike the dominoes set up by the schoolchildren where, until all of the dominoes fell, the design that was revealed to everyone was only known to the person who created the design, we don’t need to wait until the last domino falls to see the result of God’s “chain of love”: Jesus has already revealed to us the potential beauty of His love being lived out through us here on earth. 

So, rather than us being like the dominoes in the schoolchildren’s fundraiser where one domino falls into one other, what if we tried to reach out and touch more than one person?  And, those people, in turn, reached out and touched several other people?  God has lined us up so that an action that any one of us takes could not only affect one person and then another, but multiple people at one time.

If we could learn to truly follow Jesus’ command and try to love each other with the same love that God has shown us, not only would we have a “chain of love”, we might create an “explosion of love.”