The lack of traffic during the current shutdown allowed me to lie down in the middle of Avila Beach Road and shoot a sunrise from this perspective. Foolish or opportunistic? Notice the structures designed to protect our travel: guardrails, sidewalks, center dividing lines, and a stop sign.
Society has developed systems to protect our lives and access a more enjoyable life for all—traffic standards, in this case. I can zip down to Avila Beach in ten minutes, even on a foggy morning, and with a high probability, I can make it safely alongside the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant employees changing shifts and other early birds like me.
Sometimes, the rules can seem silly and unnecessary from our perspective, but we can be sure that these safety structures and regulations are the results of massive amounts of study, experience, and expense. Times and needs do change, and updates are needed to better serve us but the basics remain.
In the beginning when the law of love was lived within relationships of freedom and joy the creator did not find it necessary to spell out a lot of regulations. With time the Ancient of Days found it necessary to give the Ten Commandments to His wayward children to help guide and protect them.
Did you find it necessary to tell your children they should not kill? Did you have to explain or demonstrate to them that looks can kill, words can kill, and thoughts can kill? Myriad laws are required when we exit the law of love. God gave us the basic ten, but they are like the prime colors of red, blue, and yellow. You can mix them up and make innumerable colors...or laws.
It can be confusing. It was confusing to the lawyer who questioned Jesus about the greatest of the laws. “And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Thankfully, these two commandments cover all the others. We don’t need an extensive list. We only need two—actually, only one. That is the law of love. God is love. Just engage Him each morning for the next twenty-four hours. It’s a friendly, consensual relationship between the Father and His children, not a list of do’s and don’ts. Let’s pray, work, and play together in that kind of atmosphere.
—Larry Smith