The Love That Trusted Us To Wait

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. - Psalm 27:4

“There is nothing of earth, thank God, in the soaring rapture of the winged words, “His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads”—O joy beside which all joys pale, we welcome thee. We see thee drawing nearer, we almost hear thy footsteps, and we greet thee.

But there are days when the spirit, growing impatient, pushes far past the body’s permissions and seems to spring out between its bars, and then is caught back and held fast again. And yet even then we know that when those bars fall and in the twinkling of an eye our mortal has put on immortality, nothing will matter to us but that in the brief waiting time we did not grieve the love that trusted us to wait.

And while we wait, as it seems in strict bondage, we are not bound, we are free; we are free as happy birds that never knew a cage. No bars can forbid the soul to soar: One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (not only afterwards but now, in this daily present), to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.

And, so I take it, we may understand the Jerusalem of that little old book The Scale of Perfection very simply. Today, in this prosaic today, surrounded by the common things of life, beset by its common temptations, pledged to its common duties, we may be at home in our Father’s house; becoming, because of His patient work upon us, more and more like the children of that House, “ever thirsting and softly seeking” His blessed Presence so that others may be drawn to seek Him and with Him also continually dwell.” Gold by Moonlight - Nancy Carmichael