“How many who love never come nearer than to behold each other as in a mirror; seem to know and yet never know the inward life; never enter the other soul; and part at last, with but the vaguest notion of the universe on the borders of which they have been hovering for years?” -George MacDonald, Phantastes
Do we love in that way? It seems that we know the other person. But we haven’t even glimpsed the inner life, the soul, the universe that is the other person.
As the Spanish saying goes, “each person is a world.” Better yet, a universe with their own depths, story, and constellations.
Each person is an unrepeatable miracle and mystery – never again to be repeated in the history of the humanity. And we unknowingly walk on the edge of that human universe, loving (or leaving) without the slightest idea of the depths and beauty of the body-soul we have in front of us.
“Love that reaches the unrepeatable mystery of the other person is a love that’s truly that: unrepeatable, stable, sure. It’s an inexhaustible treasure that can’t possibly be found elsewhere. In this case, love’s inherent adventurousness finds its delight not in wandering from person to person, but from wandering ever more deeply into the heart of the one and only beloved.” – Christopher West, Fill These Hearts