Love of Land

Learning to love our neighbor more than our land

03/22/2018

Genesis 17:3-9 When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: "My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God." God also said to Abraham: "On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages."

I do not think you can call yourself a true “Southerner” without watching the classic movie “Gone with the Wind,” or at least reading the novel by the same name written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. Let me warn you, though, it is not very politically correct in its depiction of slavery or African Americans. It would be surprising, actually, if it were since it was produced from the culture of the 1930’s and telling a story taking place in the Civil War South. The plot revolves around two themes: love and land. It begins with love for the land and ends with love being worth more than the land.

Scarlett O’Hara (the protagonist of the story) is taught by her Irish father to love the land. He gently scolds her: “Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O’Hara that Tara, that land doesn’t mean anything to you? Why, the land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worthy dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” And throughout the movie land certainly seems to last a lot longer than Scarlett’s love as her heart bounces back and forth between Ashley, Charles and Rhett Butler. But what happens by the end of the story? Scarlett leaves the land of Tara in pursuit of Rhett, whom she loves. The story of “Gone with the Wind” is really about how Scarlett learns to love people more than she loves the land. Sooner or later the land will be “gone with the wind.”

I would suggest to you that the story of the Scriptures can also be understood in terms of learning to love people more than the land, and ultimately about learning to love God above all. In Genesis 17, God makes a covenant with Abraham and God sounds a lot like Gerald O’Hara, Scarlett’s father. We read: “I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan as a permanent possession.” The whole Old Testament revolves around love of the land, like Gerald O’Hara’s heart and the Old South revolved around love of the land. By the way, this is the reason why modern-day Israelis and Palestinians continue to argue and fight over the land of Israel. Like Scarlett O’Hara, they still have yet to love the people more than the land.

But Jesus explains the covenant was never really about the land, but about love. Jesus answers the Jewish leaders: “Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” In other words, Abraham understood the promise of land was only a down-payment on the real covenant, which would be the love between God and his people. Jesus was the literal embodiment of that love, and in that sense Abraham looked forward to the coming of Christ. But the Jews would not let go of the land, and they still try in vain to hold on to the land today.

Ask yourself today: are there things you love more than you love other people, and even more than you love God? Being Southerners, we can be a little too tied to the land, or even to our Southern culture. To love our past is great, as long as it does not prevent you from loving other people. Do we love our possessions more than other people? How tragic to see families torn apart by disputes over inheritances; as if we loved property more than our siblings. The same can be said for our native language: do we love our language more than people who speak another language? Instead of being inordinately attached to the land (or other material things), like Gerald O’Hara and the people of the Old Testament, see all earthly goods as a down-payment on the real blessing of love for neighbor and for God. The only land we should love is where the streets are paved with gold in heaven.

C. S. Lewis captured the essence of this struggle when he wrote: “You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and your right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind” (The Great Divorce). He was alluding to our final journey after death hopefully headed to heaven. And on that trip, we will not be able to pack any land, but we will be able to pack all our love.

Praised be Jesus Christ!