“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

—Matthew 22:36-40

On Monday mornings, I meet with my co-writer for one of my next projects. We met at the writing conference I attended last month and quickly discovered that our writing styles, target audiences, desires for our writing, and topics of interest were eerily similar. So we decided to write a book together!

It’s been an exciting journey even though it’s only been a few weeks. In so many ways, we just clicked, and even though it’s only been a month since we met, we’ve made significant headway in developing this project.

This morning, we did what we’ve done for the last few weeks and hopped on an early morning Zoom to talk about our progress, process our ideas, and talk about what’s up next.

A Garden Lesson on Growth and Loss

As we talked through the chapters we were considering and how we wanted to construct those chapters, my co-writer told me a story that struck a chord with me.

She has a garden where she grows different vegetables. One plant in particular—a pepper plant—was finally starting to grow some peppers. Flowers had budded, and a few had already wilted and started taking shape as little baby peppers.

One day later, however, she looked at the plant and discovered that something had gone horribly wrong. Everything—leaves, flowers, and baby peppers alike—had disappeared. The culprit? A caterpillar.

One long, fat caterpillar had stripped her plant of every sign of health and fruitfulness. It had consumed everything but the now-empty stem.

The caterpillar was quickly removed from the garden, and the plant is starting to grow again, but she later did some research on that kind of caterpillar. Turns out, that kind of caterpillar eventually becomes a moth that feeds on nectar rather than the fruit of pepper plants.

I love that change, not because moths have pretty patterns on their wings, but because I think it’s the same change God wants to bring about in us.

What Jesus Said About Love

Today’s passage happens when the Pharisees and Sadducees are testing Jesus, trying to get Him to say something wrong so they can have Him arrested. One of the Pharisees asks what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus goes the extra mile and gives them the top two commandments.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
—Matthew 22:37–39

What I think is important about these two commandments is the fact that both refer to love using the Greek word agape. The Greeks had several words for different kinds of love, but agape was the highest form. It was unconditional, self-sacrificial love—a love that puts others’ needs before our own. It’s the kind of love God shows us, and it’s the kind of love we’re called to show God and others.

Agape Love in Action

The specific result of employing this kind of love is that we stop focusing primarily on ourselves and our needs. Our focus becomes the needs of others.

But how does this relate to caterpillars and moths?

The caterpillar my friend discovered on her pepper plant consumed indiscriminately. Had it been allowed to stay in the garden, she might have lost all her pepper plants before the pudgy thing had eaten its fill. It was as destructive as a self-focused mindset.

However, the moth it could eventually turn into would feed on nectar and become a pollinator. As it moved from flower to flower, it would spread life and beauty.

It’s important to note in our self-care-centered culture that both the caterpillar and the moth have their needs met. One just goes about it in a way that benefits more than just themselves, and the results are beautiful.

A Prayer to Love Like Jesus

My prayer for us this week is that God makes us pollinators. That He empowers us to show others that agape, self-sacrificing love, because I can’t imagine how much beauty He’ll create when we live out these two commandments.