Mama, Do You Love Me?

Barbara M. Joosse’s book – Mama, Do You Love Me? – is set in the Inuit culture of Alaska, beautifully illustrated by Barbara Lavalle. It’s a dialogue between a mom and a daughter, telling how much the mother loves her daughter, even if the daughter were to make childish mischief. The opening lines are:

Mama, do you love me? Yes, I do, dear one.

How much? I love you more than the raven loves his treasure, More than the dog loves his tale, More than the whale loves his spout.

How long? I’ll love you until the umiak flies into the darkness, Till the stars turn to fish in the sky, And the puffin howls at the moon.

The Lord Jesus and Peter had a similar conversation after Jesus’s resurrection.

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then, feed my lambs. Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then, shepherd my sheep. Simon, son of John, do you love me? Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Then, feed my sheep.

Without a doubt, the Lord’s challenge of Peter’s love and commissioning to feed the lamb and sheep would have rung in Peter’s ears throughout his life. Faithfully, he shepherded and fed God’s lambs and sheep.

Now, he passed on Jesus’s instructions to others:

“Love one another earnestly by purifying your souls in the obedience of the truth for unhypocritical familial love from a pure heart and by not being born again by perishable but imperishable seed through the word of the living and abiding God.” (1 Pet 1:22–23)

Peter’s command was to love one another earnestly. But love has a wide range – love for food to love for one’s spouse or family. Peter specified the kind of love by putting two explanations: a love from a purified soul and a love from being born again by a new and imperishable seed.

One’s soul was purified by obedience to the truth, Jesus Christ. Obeying the Lord Jesus brought about a special kind of love that was unhypocritical, unpretentious, but genuine, like the love one has for one’s own family, a love that stemmed from a pure heart. All these modifiers narrow the scope of that love. It wasn’t a person’s love for a steak or ice cream but love for others that were pure, holy, unpretentious, and familial.

Further, this love resulted from one’s new birth. This birth wasn’t started by a perishable or dying seed, a reference to one’s sperm or egg. Instead, this birth originated through the word of a living and abiding God. Just as he was everlasting, his words were everlasting, and the new birth was everlasting. If so, the love that stemmed from such everlasting newness of life would also be an everlasting love. Peter wanted his audience to love one another with a new unfading heavenly love.

God wants us to exercise that same kind of love toward one another. In Paul’s simple words, this love never fails or gives up. It keeps on loving, genuinely, as if the other person is one’s family, brother and sister, mom and dad, and son and daughter.