Saturday, December 4, 2010

December 4 – Desire Obtained







Joy unspeakable . . . and full of glory!

Peace . . . that passes understanding!

Love that will not fail!

All ours.



Have you ever observed how the betrothed woman can suffer loss, can endure hardship, and face down multiple disappointments, often without any appreciable dent in her joy? Her love toward her beloved does not go into remission, and her peace, if shaken, is restored in his presence.



Could it be that while she remains the object of her beloved’s promise, she knows that she is a woman desired?



Sadly, while marriage fulfills many hopes and ushers in an expected newness and oneness, the woman obtained is not always treated with the same necessary adulations as the woman desired. Sometimes, too, the woman obtained can resent the conditions of belonging to the one who asked if he might have her. It is one thing ever to be the object of desire, another to be the second half of belonging. Friendship makes a palpable difference in perspective and practice.


This may be the difference that the monastery makes. The postulant knows when she enters and learns as she goes that she is part of a cloistered community for the purpose of belonging and adoring. Her own desirability is not her focus, but indications are that a genuine sense of betrothal, of having been wooed and won, increases as time goes by.



In the Lord Jesus Christ, all that the Father wanted to bestow upon us, all the honor and all the anticipation and all the fulfillment is ever toward us. In unending bequeathment of grace and strengthand forgiveness and hope, He proves His love. He giveth more grace; His joy is our strength; we are born again to a living hope. Nothing lacking, nothing withheld.



To maintain friendship with God, we do well to preserve our holy and sensible desire for His nearness, to practice lives that will honor His having chosen us and our having obtained Him!


How shall we "see to it" this season, dear ones?

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