Mysteries So Bright

The writer told of a thread running from end to end of man’s history and said it was like the thread of Theseus. That Greek myth relates how Theseus was going into the Labyrinth from which no man ever found his way out again to kill the monster Minotaur.

The princess Ariadne offers Theseus a thread to unravel as he explores the dark maze so he can escape if he survives the quest. That scene stirred my memory of Mark Twain’s story about Tom Sawyer and Becky being lost in a cave.

The tender love of the two toward each other described in that tale made me long to be as Tom in comforting his friend. I think this was the first time that romantic love arose in my young heart. In the words of C. S. Lewis, I was surprised by joy.

And now some 60 years later, some of those expressions of rapture in my heart are opening afresh, better and more vivid than ever before. The poem by Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven, for me captures the essence of the ongoing pursuit for joy that I thought was initiated by me, but indeed, it is I who was being pursued.

The source of this fountain of joy, this welling up within my soul, is none other than my heavenly lover, the Lord Jesus Christ! Blessed be His Name!  Sometimes I feel like my heart might burst if I cannot share these feelings with others.

Someone asked, “Do you know that He loves you with His whole heart?” That question brought me up short. How can that be? How can the creator and king of the universe care about me, about each one of us? What is it about us that is worthy of love, of His trying to capture our hearts? Finding that answer is also part of the unfolding mystery of this marvelous love.

Oh how I wish I had the words to describe these experiences. How I long to bring others into the same gallery of riches and glory, to the place that Paul described, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways…For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 12:33-36)

…I fled Him, down the labyrithine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him…

Halts by me that footfall:…
…His hand, outstretched caressingly…
“…I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

–Francis Thompson