In her book Violence and Nonviolence in Scripture: Helping Children Understand Challenging Stories, author Catherine Maresca writes, “…God does not force change, but allows us to experience to consequences of our choices.  This is the vulnerability of God.  God has made space for us to act in the universe by a kind of divine self-limitation.” 

What a beautiful concept to remind us that vulnerability is part of the territory of Love.  I don’t mean the kind of vulnerability that asks us to trust another, rather I’m talking about the kind of vulnerability that asks us to surrender the self.  To limit ourselves in a healthy way, to relinquish control, speaks to the truth that in order to really Love we must welcome the freedom that comes with it.  In doing so we simply cannot know what will happen next.  For example, when a woman births a baby there is Love, and complete uncertainty.  Or when one stands in solidarity with another who is suffering there is Love, and no way to predict what the cost may be.  Still we understand, at some primal level, that this is what Love asks of us and it is the only path there. 

To Love is indeed to be vulnerable, to set aside our own agendas and make space for the cause and effect of another in this universal dance.  Love is what makes us free. 

May you be inspired!