Three Metaphors for Love

Just came home from the wedding of Sara Wiele and Ryan Wendt. Following is the sermonette I presented.

For Ryan and Sara

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words

Then a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures.

I would like to offer for this grand occasion

The wedding of Ryan and Sara

Three metaphors for love.

 

Love is the ocean waves upon the beach

Like love the waves keep coming back

Again and again and again

They wash the shore of flotsam and jetsam

And carry it far out to sea

As far as the east is from the west in fact

 

At the same time the waves bring treasures

From the depths of the sea

Shellfish, oysters, starfish, crabs

And funny seaweed thingies

That make us wonder what they are

So does love bring home the wonders

That I have seen today

 

But best of all for this metaphor

Love breaks upon the shore

It turns to foam in the presence of its lover

And dissipates in the caress

 

And there are times when the winds of life

Reach hurricane force

Times when love has come to fear

The waves can tear away the beach

These are the words we wish we had never said

But miracle of miracles

When the fear is spent

The waves are back to build the beach again

To heal the scars, to break once more upon the shore.

 

Love is where the mountains meet the sky

Snow capped mountain peaks

Are white gloves with which we handle

The most precious things in life.

Mountains reaching

Always yearning for the beloved one

For as long as the next thing to eternity

Which is just as long as life does last.

 

And this is how love does otherness

Nothing could be more different

Than the granite mountain

And the wispy air of sky.

Love embraces otherness

First the otherness of male and female

Of course that is what love is for

But there are other othernesses

That can be like a sliver in the shoe.

That’s what the white gloves are for

Handle with care,

With tact and gentleness,

With the soft polishing touch of love.

 

Love is an arbor holding up a vine

Without this trellis the vine

Would lay upon the ground

When grape vines are pruned

They say the result is drastic.

Everything is removed except the stalk

Coming up out of the ground

And the first two branches

One to go each way.

Life sometimes does that

God says the pruning is His love

It takes pain to make prolific growth

And that is also true for the grapes

But while the pain is new

You need someone to hold you up

The arbor, the trellis, love

Hold you up to the healing invigorating SON(SUN).

The God one and the bright shiny one too.

 

If a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures.

Then a poem is worth a million.

 

 

 

 

 

How I Love You

 

I love you
Like the ocean loves the shore
washing bringing breaking
Again, again, again, more.

I love you
Like the mountains love the sky
Snowcapped hands reaching
Bring the beloved nigh.

I love you
Like the arbor loves the vine
Holding it up to the sun
Giving it time. . . to grow.

I love you all these ways
Just so.

 

With my best wishes

I love how you love each other!

 

Curt Mortimer