What’s not to like?

A wise and tenderhearted woman said to me recently, “What does it even mean to not like someone?” What a good question. For us, Christians that is, it doesn’t mean much. In fact, I think it might be yet another of life’s absurdities. Consider this, once I let love have me, really surrender myself to the love of God in Jesus Christ, like and dislike are taken off the board as possible responses to another human being. What’s not to like? The person standing right in front of me is one of God’s kids. If they happen to be a poorly behaved person, then that just means they are one of God’s special kids. That is, they are someone upon whom God spends special amounts of grace, love, patience, and mercy. 

I am tempted to say, “Okay, I like the person, but I don’t like their behavior.” These days that just feels like lazy rationalizing, a sort of back door way into not liking one of God’s kids. I more and more believe in the possibility of being transformed by the love of Jesus to the extent that we transcend the too-easy categories of like and dislike when we’re dealing with our neighbors. After all, to not like someone is to not like a beloved object of God’s infinite love. That doesn’t feel right. God dwells within us all as source and sustenance, therefore it’s not much of a stretch to realize that to not like another person is in some way to not like God. That doesn’t seem right either, does it?

Maybe I’ve gone too far with all of this. Maybe not. Who knows?