An Open Heart

“Your heart is my piñata.” Chuck Palahniuk  At first when I read this quote I pictured all the little kids chasing the piñata with a stick. Poor piñata! Then after I meditated on it I decided love is like that. Someone causes us to open our heart and all the sweetness inside comes out. So does some straw and papier mache but so much beauty we hold inside unless we let someone break us open in love.

God’s word says it a little less romantically but nevertheless as meaningful. Where no oxen are the grain crib is empty, but much increase [of crops] comes by the strength of the ox. Proverbs 14:4 We need people. Maybe we single folks need a lover, maybe we don’t but we all need someone to grow our lives so we’ll be “grain” for others. We only are helpful to others and they are only helpful to us if we are in relationship with them. And if we close our heart to others we lose our warmth, our tenderness, our graciousness.

In the movie “Everafter” a young servant girl disguises herself as a noble lady and happens to run into the Prince. He falls in love with the words she says and with her. She holds her love until a little later. But finally they share why she loves words and books. It’s because her father would read to her at night when she was young, before he died. The Prince felt he had no passion such as hers. So he decided he wanted to build a university with a library. The night came when he found out she was only a servant girl. It was at a ball. She was dressed to be an angel and she appeared to be from heaven itself. But he would have none of her beauty when he knew she was a servant girl. He sealed his heart inside himself, feeling betrayed. He stayed that way for a while.  Someone finally told him she deserved better than him anyway. So he went to her and found her and it took some convincing but that happened when he said her real name, not her name of nobility. They were married and seemed to be happy.

I’m not saying love makes you happy necessarily, it can. But love definitely gives you another perspective on life. And it widens your horizons. And it brings out your sweetness. And it makes you “grain” for others.

Add a comment November 15, 2010