prodigal

Today I went to a one day study on Islam: the basics. It was sympathetically and intelligently presented by a man who is still a Christian. At the end of the day I needed to ask him why he was still Christian, when I'd found his presentation so engaging. Islam is so logical, a faith that really gives practical and detailed instructions on how to confront evils like poverty and inequality. He shared four points with me that are significant to him in Christianity, but the one that struck me the most was that in his experience, the way God is understood in Islam is ultimately rational, and his understanding of God (and specifically the love of God) is that it is irrational, "loving us to death" even when we are utterly unloveable.

Now the above is just me paraphrasing from one person, so please, go ask someone Muslim how they understand the love of God, because I can't actually speak for that. But I'm just mentioning what he said because it touched me surprisingly to be reminded of God's prodigal love for me and the whole world.

As I was leaving the centre I saw a bunch of bread left over from another group who'd been there that day, and I had a cranky moment, remembering how much more food they'd been provided with than we had. At that moment the man who was cleaning up popped his head out of the kitchen and asked "would you like some bread?" And he asked, "how much can you carry?" I was giddy from the smell of bread and the generosity of strangers all the way home on the bus.