Of late nights and open hearts

If only I could be blessed with foresight enough to understand all of the subtleties and nuances of the human heart. This thought came to me today as I pondered how each and every day I find new paths to be trodden in my own heart and soul as well as in others. Not to mention the new people encountered on a given day.
It is a wonder to me that each person created by our loving God has within them a tapestry of thoughts, feelings, and memories each woven in such a way that is unique to them. What fills me with even greater wonder along with sheer joy is when someones bears all of these things that are inside them for the world to see, holding nothing back.
"The glory of God is man fully alive." St. Iraneus
To be in the presence of one fully awake and alive is comparable to staring at the sun. While a beautiful sight to behold, it is at the same time blinding but in the most pleasant way possible. When all one's heart bears is open to you, you are given a glimpse of the light that is the glory of God.
A couple of days ago I had a three hour conversation with a new good friend of mine. We swapped stories of recent happenings in our lives, gradually moving into topics dealing with our relationships with others and our relationships with God. Laughing, verging on tears of both joy and sadness, and being filled with the joy of our fellowship in the Lord. The only reason for stopping the dialogue was the fact that 2:30am had snuck up on us, and we both had morning classes. Dang. Now, it is not that I have never had a deep conversation with anyone like this before. What made this encounter unique was the unabashed opening of each others souls to one another through simple conversation, sharing our hopes, dreams, fears, and stories.
Nothing was held back, the musings of our hearts were free to sing out, and even more touchy topics that most would try to avoid seemed not at all awkward or out the ordinary. These are the moments in which I feel a closeness to God that is nearly unmatched, the moments in which I am close to another human being's very soul. This sort of recklessness in relationship with one another has somehow become a rarity in most people's lives today. And what a sad misfortune this is. I would venture a guess that throughout the course of the day, half the people I know do not engage in many, if any conversations that go beyond the generic "How's it going?" "What's up?" "How was this, How is that?" Now granted not every conversation can go deep, and it is something that ought not to be forced. Talking randomly to someone over lunch about how their peanut butter sandwich reminds you of your own smallness in the universe probably won't get you very far in a deep conversation. In fact it would probably get you a queer look from the other party, followed by a slow backing away out of fear for what strangeness will spill out of your mouth next. But we must strive to seek deeper relationship with one another, for it is in each other goodness can be found. As much as Christians seek after close relationship with God, they do not seek close, strong relationships with one another nearly enough. I at times will find myself at church, but not really wanting to talk with many people. Just to go, play, listen, and leave. But by doing this I not only perform a disservice to myself, but to everyone around me who might have just needed a friendly heart to talk to that day. If we are to love God, we must love others. This is simply a non-negotiable truth in our relationship with God. We strive so hard to be like God yet at times seem to forget that it is hard to live like and love God, if we cannot first live well with each other and love as to break down all barriers. As humans we were not meant to live life alone. When people are able to truly open up to the core of their being, they are able to let shine the glory of God. I have seen it before and saw it with my friend two days ago. Inside and out we should strive to be made up of what Christ is; Love. To open up completely to someone is to love. To love is to let them in.