Prophetic Love

Perhaps I had a few drinks. Perhaps I was very tired from opening early yesterday with no time for a nap. But I had a religious experience last night. It involved Bon Iver and a photograph. I was listening to Bon Iver’s new album on NPR and, just as I hoped, it was beautiful and sad and rich in every good way, and just as I was really getting into it, you know like how it sometimes takes a couple listens at first, I saw a photograph that my friend Justin posted. Normally I would not think much of it, maybe write something on his wall like, “Dude, cool.” But it struck me in a very profound way. As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, the photograph is of a couple kissing in the middle of the street behind a riot officer and in front of a fire. What is happening? The Vancouver Riots. Because the only thing Canadians will riot for is hockey.

The photograph makes you stop. For one, it is a bit lewd, I know. You can pretty much see the girl’s ass. But it is alarming and surprising and beautiful, because here is a couple completely consumed with their love—out of touch with the riots happening around them or the fact that there is a SWAT officer and a fire within ten feet of them. I’m not sure how long the kiss went on for, it could have been ten minutes, it could have been one second. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that this picture is a prophetic picture.

I thought of it as a metaphor for subversive love in a riotous world. How incredible would it be if our love could look like this? What if we didn’t care as the world burned around us? What if we were so consumed with our love for another person, a city, God, that our love caused others to stop and wonder “Who in the world has time for a kiss at a moment like this?”