The Power of Love Surpasses All - The unimaginable power of love from a mother brings tears to eyes all over the world

What is love? Perhaps love has grown cold in the world, or perhaps we have lost sight of what love is in the first place. If you were to look at what’s happening in the world today, wars are breaking out in various countries, and many people are being killed every day. It’s a depressing reality in which many civilians and children are losing their lives. When did this world get stuck in the depths of a quagmire that is the exact opposite of love? Even in normally peaceful Japan, murders are reported on a daily basis. There is no end to the tragic cases of people who were attacked and had their precious lives stolen by strangers without any reason. I also have been frequently hearing about child abuse cases in which children were murdered by their own parents. This is truly a sign that we are living in the era of the Degeneration of the Law.

Since Japanese society is in such a cold state these days, most people probably don’t remember the last time they talked about love. I am sure that I am one of them. I imagine that even if a young person claims, “No, it’s not true!” It’s probably just the result of a preoccupation with romantic feelings and a short romantic love affair for the time being. Sometimes, when a person falls in love with the opposite sex and falls head over heels in love with them, it is not hard to understand why he or she might think that they’re in love. It may be true that this is a type of love, but why does passionate romantic love often quickly end in a breakup? Does love cool off that easily?

What is true love? A philosopher once said, “Love is the heart that wants to close the distance.” Somehow, I think this philosopher has a point. It’s true that we want to be close to the people we like and love, but on the other hand, we do not want to see or be close to the people we dislike. But, it’s obvious that this alone does not explain love. Even stalkers want to be close to the people they’re stalking, and they want to be close to their victims all the time. One-sided actions and assumptions that ignore the feelings of the other person can never be called love; they are merely dangerous delusions and their behavior is based on self-centered assumptions. What, then, is true love?

Just last week, a YouTube video suddenly caught my eye. It was a video of a deer fawn like Bambi swimming in a shallow river. Suddenly, a large crocodile swims across the bank and approaches the fawn, making waves in the water. The fawn is in a desperate situation. The fawn couldn’t move fast, and just when it seemed certain it was going to be eaten, it saw the mother deer swimming toward it from far to the right, jumping up and down. It was as if it was running on the water, as if it were flying at full speed, and it was rushing toward the crocodile and the fawn. The moment the fawn sensed that it was being chased by the crocodile and that all was not well, the mother deer stepped in between them to block the path of the crocodile. When she reached the middle of the crocodile and the fawn, she stood there and stopped dead in her tracks. Seconds later, the giant crocodile devoured the mother deer in one fell swoop. The camera caught the mother deer giving her life to save her faun, with or without asking for it. I don’t think this is something that can just be called animal nature. Without any logic, the very act of offering oneself to save the life of another seems to be the crystallization of love.

The Bible says. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). I think that the mother deer has set an example for us. To sacrifice oneself for the sake of the other, to put another person before oneself, and to take the initiative in serving the other person filled with patience and generosity of spirit, is the starting point of love, is it not? This is different from the “love-swollen” relationships between men and women. It is the end result of contact between people and their souls, and the ultimate love is to give up one’s own labor, sometimes even one’s life, for the sake of the other person in hope that the other person will benefit from it. Jesus Christ, who put this love into practice, also laid down his own life and carried the cross in order to save mankind. Something amazing happened in the history of mankind in the past. I wonder if I, in the crucible of today’s cold Japanese society, will ever be able to find that kind of unconditional love. Is it proof that my heart has grown cold as well, that I feel as if love is a story about a utopia that I myself can never reach?

I would like to conclude by talking about a video. Miki Itakura, a messenger of love, is one person I work with through the Sound House Kodomo no Mirai Foundation who introduced me to this one YouTube video that I watched yesterday. This short video is in English and I think how wonderful it would be if everyone could understand English. I hope someday it will be available in Japanese as well. Even if you don’t understand the language, you may start crying just by watching it.

The story goes back to the Iraq War. The town was hit by an air raid and two young brothers were fatally injured by the blast, with the younger brother losing both hands and the elder brother losing one hand. They were placed in a shoe shelf on the side of the road with no one to help them. Just thinking of this scene brings tears to my eyes. The brothers were picked up as they were and taken to an orphanage for treatment. Their lives were in danger, but two Australians adopted them and devoted themselves to medical treatment in their home country, and both survived.

The Australian woman who became the boys’ adopted mother raised both children as if they were her own and loved them as much as she could. The two children were nurtured by their her love, and despite their severe disabilities, they gradually healed from the smiling faces in their home life. At the age of 17, the elder brother went on the X Factor, the most difficult TV audition to showcase his singing skills, and he passed the rigorous screening process with flying colors, and ended up appearing on TV. At the time, the brother who was called Emmanuel, was thought to be around 17 years old, but in fact, there is no way to know his exact age or when he was born.

Emmanuel then took the stage and talked about the hardships of his childhood with the picture of him and his brother smiling with their mother. He then sang “Imagine” by John Lennon from the Beatles on stage. The sight of him and his wonderful voice brought all the judges and the large audience to tears. Behind his smiling face on stage despite his severe disability was his mother who spent many years raising these two brothers with love as if they were her own. I am sure that I wasn’t the only one who was startled after witnessing proof that this precious mother’s love enabled her children who were facing death to be raised well enough to overcome the tragedy of the war.

Even in the face of adversity, the power of love is immeasurable and can dramatically change people’s hearts and the course of their lives. Although I myself cannot do anything to fill Japanese society with more unconditional love, I want to focus on what I can do, starting from the first step, to reach out to children through the Sound House Kodomo no Mirai Foundation. Not only that, but it’s important to do whatever we can do now, think about what we can do next, and put it into practice right away. I want to do what is important now so that when my time comes to leave this life, I will not regret what I should have done. Love is action, practice, and I want to keep walking with this feeling in my heart. I’m drawing up a picture in my head right now.