The Generous Eye: Love Locks, Machu Picchu, Peru. Happy Sunday!

“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus

This is a pedestrian bridge over the small stream that bisects Machu Picchu Pueblo at the foot of Machu Picchu mountain in Peru. Machu Picchu is a major tourist destination, so I suspect these Love Locks come from all over the world. Each had the name of the couple inscribed in magic marker. Some were still legible despite having survived a few rainy seasons in the high Andes. I don’t know where the tradition of Love Locks started, but I have seen it several times now in my travels in romantic locations through Central and South America (and in Santa Fe, New Mexico), so it must be well established. It is an interesting concept…that we can “lock up” our love and make it eternal. There is song by Mercy Me…really just a song fragment…a single verse with music…in which the singer lists off the things he could do for his love. Bart Millard is a master with words and images and deserves quoting here.

I can be there for you when it can’t get much harder
I can cover your head when life starts to rain
I can hold on tight when you feel like you’re falling
I can bread crumb the path when you’ve lost your way
I can make you laugh when the whole world is crying
I can build you up when you’re broken in shame
But if all that we do is absent of Jesus, then this so called love is completely in vain…

When I listen to those words I am always moved, but at the end I always want to say, “No Bart, you have it wrong. It is impossible that any of us could do any of that, absent of Jesus. All love, true love, can only be accomplished by the divine in us, by Jesus living and loving through us. We, in the absence of Jesus, are incapable of any meaningful expression of love.”

So, the fact that Bart, or anyone, could “be there for another when life can’t get much harder” is evidence of God’s love for us, expressed from one Child of God to another. It is evidence of the presence of Jesus.

Love Locks…eternal love for one human being for another. It is a romantic idea. But more, it is a reflection of the need we feel, in our spirits, for eternal love…the love of God…the true love that is possible between two Children of God. Putting a lock on a fence or bridge does not make it so…but knowing yourself in Jesus, living with another in the spirit of the generous eye, can, and does.

I missed my wife Carol’s birthday traveling to Machu Picchu. I took this photo the day before. So this is by way of a birthday present for her. My own Love Lock hanging on a bridge in some romantic destination, just for her. One Child of God’s declaration of love for another. Happy Birthday Carol.

And may all your loves be evidence of God’s love, the presence of Jesus, today. Happy Sunday!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *