Underhill: the reality in love

Sunday, January 3, 2016
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks :
    so longeth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God :
    when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
    —Psalm 42:1-2 (Coverdale)
Quotation:
    When we look out towards this love that moves the stars and stirs in the child’s heart and claims our total allegiance and remember that this alone is Reality and we are only real so far as we conform to its demands, we see our human situation from a fresh angle; and we perceive that it is both more humble and dependent, and more splendid, than we had dreamed. We are surrounded and penetrated by great spiritual forces, of which we hardly know anything. Yet the outward events of our life cannot be understood, except in their relation to that unseen and intensely living world, the Infinite Charity which penetrates and supports us, the God whom we resist and yet for whom we thirst; who is ever at work, transforming the self-centred desire of the natural creature into the wide-spreading, outpouring love of the citizen of Heaven.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The School of Charity, New York: Longmans, Green, 1934, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1991, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1; John 4:13-14; 7:37; Rom. 8:5-10; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 22:1
Quiet time reflection:
    I am desperate for You, O Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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