Love of the living God washes the soul, contents the mind, magnifies rewards, casts out vices, renders the earth hateful, washes and binds the thoughts. What does the love of Godf accomplish in a person? It kills his desires, it cleanses his heart, it protects him, it swallows up his vices, it earns rewards, it prolongs his life, it washes his soul.

  - Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 6th century)

"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 first commandment..."

  - Matthew 22.37, 38

In his poem, "Let me be to Thee as the circling bird", Gerard Manley Hopkins likened his relationship to God as to a bat or a bird circling around a light at night - single in his focus, fixed in his orbit, delighting and thriving in the constancy of that reliable light.

Then, mid-way through the poem, he uses the song of the bird to change the metaphor. The song of the bird becomes Hopkins' own song, his poetry, which he discovered only late in life to be his holy calling from the Lord.

Hopkins thrived the most when he was writing poetry, although none of his poems were published in his lifetime. He wrote them simply to express God's love for him and his love for God. Poetry was the song he wrote as he circled around the Lord he loved. Everything else was strictly secondary to focusing on the Lord and singing His praises through verse.

Hopkins found his "dominant" chord, and the full measure of his "range and state" of singing, by basking in the love of God, and loving God in return. His sweet poem ends: "I have found the dominant of my range and state -/Love, O my God, to call Thee Love and Love."

The construction, "love of God", in Colman's poem is, I believe, deliberately vague. Does he mean the love God has for him? Or the love he has for God?

I think the answer is, "Yes." When we know the love of God it enlivens us and moves us to circle around him, basking in His light and warmth, delighting in His radiant steadfast care and love.

And the love He has for us evokes from us a song of love to Him. We may not sing like a circling bird or write a lovely sonnet, but each of us has a song of love for God to sing which emanates from the thoughts and affections of our souls and issues in words and deeds of devotion and service.

To love God is the great and first commandment.

But to love God we must first know the love of God - we must first know Jesus. We must gaze upon His radiance, circle around His glory, warm ourselves in the light of His daily provision, and enjoy the fullness of life and hope that only Jesus can bring.

Know Jesus like this, circle about Him throughout each day, and He will show you the love God has for you and teach you to love God, so that you find the dominant of your own range and state, and dwell in the "love of God" through every moment and in every situation of every day of your life.

To call Him Love, and to love.

This is why we have been redeemed. How will you live out your redemption today?

T. M. Moore, Principal

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You can enroll in Spiritual Maturity 1: Revival today, and we'll show you how to begin circling around the love God has for you more consistently, and more joyously, as you travel the journey of faith toward the high prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.