Lesson 127
There is no love but God’s.
In 1960, Etta James came out with a song entitled, A Sunday Kind of Love. Her opening lyrics state, “I want a Sunday kind of love / A love to last past Saturday night / And I’d like to know / It’s more than love at first sight / And I want a Sunday kind of love.” She goes on later in the song to specifically say in all her searching, “Oh, I’m hoping to discover / A certain kind of lover / Who will show me the way.” This song, like many other love songs, often describes the love we believe we are looking for, the love that ends our search for love. The love that reveals to us all that we have been hoping for. The love that will finally show us the way. It is a beautiful sentiment and a noble search but the sort of love we are looking for can’t be fulfilled by the earthly love Etta James sings of. It is a love that is beyond A Sunday Kind of Love. It is not something outside ourselves and it is not something that can be contained to a minute, hour, or day of the week. It is a Love that was not created by man but still is for man.
Today’s lesson is the least and most romantic lesson in A Course in Miracles. It is the least romantic in that if you are searching for the love Etta James or Rom-Coms are depicting, with a romantic lover waiting for you with a rose at the end of the practice period, sorry, your bubble is about to burst because that sort of earthly love was not intended to last and not intended to be experienced during our practice periods. On the other hand, if you truly want the Love that ends your entire search for Love, this lesson will bring the most poetic and romantic words you have ever heard. The words describing a Love that fills you up always from the inside out, that never leaves you, that never forsakes you, and that never changes. Experiencing that “There is no love but God’s” can be the sweetest love song you have ever heard.
“There is no love but God’s, and all of love is His. There is no other principle that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite” (ACIM Lesson 127 3:5-7).
There is a beautiful passage in Volume 2 of the Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, when a young, poor girl gets the attention of a healer to come and aid in helping her younger brother that fell and broke his back. The brother was in a dire situation and the little girl knew that this woman could help. Once in their home and seeing the injured brother and the young girl together, the healer stated,
“”You love your brother dearly, do you not? The girl, who could not have been more than nine years old said, “Yes, but I love everyone.”” (Spalding 121).
It is innocence of this young girl that is God’s love. Later in this particular story, it is the love of the sister that actually helps heal the brother as it is pure love, not bound earthy conditions or limitations, that facilitates true miracles. Do you remember when you still had that innocent love that included everyone and everything like the little girl in this story? Do you remember when you loved without any conditions or exclusions? We still have that innocent heart capable of such pure love, the love we were intended to give and receive. Yet such a love in not found in another, it is only found within.
“Seek not within the world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and the ears that hear love’s Voice” (ACIM Lesson 127 6:1-3).
We are invited to take a closer look at how we love ourselves and others. Recall when you purchased something you loved, like an iPhone, new watch, new outfit, etc. Do you remember the day when you didn’t love it so much but instead loved something else that you just had to go buy? Recall when you fell in love with someone. Doesn’t that love change, you either are no longer are with that person or you realize that in staying committed that there are days you seem to feel the love for that person more than others? Today, we attempt to go beyond the love that ebbs and flows, alters, manipulates, controls, has a price, etc.
The love of God is an unconditional free love. It is a love that says, “I free you” instead of, “I need you to be this person for me and if you do that, then I will love you.” It is a love without limits or control or manipulation or stipulation. It is a “free will” sort of love. It is a love you are never without. It is a love that is never withheld. It is a love that resembles the innocent eyes of a child who simply loves everyone and everything. It is a Love that sees only Love, feels only Love, hears only Love, smells only the fragrance of Love, and tastes the bounty of Love.
We come to our practice periods to understand that the love that we have been searching for is nowhere but within. We come to our quiet time to be guided by the Voice that directs our ears towards Love’s melody. It is the One Song that we all share and return within to remember. There is no other Love but this.
“He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach love’s meaning to you clean and open mind. And He will bless the lesson with His Love” (ACIM Lesson 127 9:4-6).
We also take time each hour to include a fellow brother and sister as we bless them with the love we are awakening to. It is important to state, that with pure intention, do we select our fellow brothers and sisters. We do not choose them out of lack or because they are in need of something. We do not try to save them in this manner, either. However, we do bless them with our love, as it is a love that cannot help but burst forth, as it cannot be contained. We share out of pure joy and excitement, not because we see the suffering of another. We bless because with the magnitude of this Love, there is nothing else to do but bless.
“I bless you, brother, with the Love of God, which I would share with you. For I would learn the jurors lesson that there is no love but God’s and yours and mine and everyone’s” (ACIM Lesson 127 12:4-5).
Our step in miracles today is a big one. It is another step leading us Home. It is another step in reclaiming our innocence. As “There is no Will but God’s (Lesson 74), it is part of our Divine plan to remember the Love that we are Willed to share.
“Today we take the largest single step this course requests in your advance towards its established goal” (ACIM Lesson 127 6:5).
Also in 1960, Etta James came out with the song, At Last!, in which she tells of finally obtaining the love she has always wanted: “At last / My love has come along / My lonely days are over / And life is like a song.” Today, we can all share in Etta’s sentiments as At Last! our search is over, our Love has come along, our lonely days are over, as we become One with the Love Song that plays from within. At Last! is typically played for the bride and groom’s first dance at a wedding. Let us play this song today as we commune with the Bridegroom, Our Father, Our Mother, in celebration of there being no other love than God’s Love. Let this be Your Love Song to You.
Namaste.
Resources:
Spalding, Baird T. Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East. Vol. 2. DeVorss Publications. Camarillo, 1972. Print.