Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and new; Late Have I loved You. Lo, you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong, I, misshapen. You were with me but I was not with You. They held me back far from You, those things which would have no being were they not in you. You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; You flashed, blazed, banished my blindness; You lavished Your fragrance on me, I gasped, and now I pant for You; I tasted You, and I hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I burned for Your peace.
~Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Oh beloved, it is true. There is within those who have come to know Him, a bottomless hunger that can only be filled by a supply of infinite scale. We have touched the hem of Perfection, and we yearn to be clothed in the goodness He left tingling on the tips of our fingers. This hunger and pain seems to become the normal state of anyone who simply casts themselves onto His goodness.
At first, we thought that the experience was a fleeting “oh my G_d!” moment. For we looked behind and around us at the ASTOUNDING poverty foisted on us by the evil one (yet masquerading as wealth), and gasp. As Mother Theresa said, the greatest poverty is not lack of food and shelter, it is loneliness. And as the father of lies played out his strategy of isolating us from each other (that he might devour us), we were (at first) lulled into a sense that being alone and numb and dry and anxious was just kind of OK….
But God, because the Great Love with which He Loved us, made us alive together with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly places. So that in the coming ages He might show us the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus…. ~ from Ephesians 2
The taste of that first joy of reaching for Him though, makes us ravenous. We begin a journey towards the upward call He has given us in Christ Jesus. And in each step towards the inapproachable light of His presence, their grows in us a certainty that He is real and drawing us towards a destiny of astounding goodness – a goodness so good that it will take an eternity to find the bottom of His riches.
And along the way, His glorious overpressure: the fabric of who He is, drapes and covers and comforts and protects us from all directions. Though, even as we are protected, the torrent of His goodness rips our thinking to shreds and leaves only wisdom and revelation in its wake. It is as if we are travelling utterly stripped of anything we might have thought we should have brought, but completely equipped for the journey. There comes a simplicity to the whole thing.
We are just running home to see our Daddy.
But it seems that His simplicity manifests as a multi-dimensional fabric with infinite thread count. Everything… every little thing is working together for the good of those who have squeaked out their “yes” to Him as He called them. And the wrapping effect of this fabric is guaranteeing safe passage Home into the new heavens and new earth where all dimensions will be understood – and we will begin the eternal adventure and journey to the center of His infinite heart, with Him as our G_d and Guide and Lover and Friend!
Evil is real, but is only spot and small stain on this fabric. And this same evil, we now see, is being washed away. Evil cannot sustain itself, it has no holding power against the inexhaustible flow of the goodness of G_d. We see that it is a retreating menace that is already beaten. We are now, even now, watching it die. And there is no way it can keep us from going Home.
In the place of evil, the flood of His goodness has fully changed us. We are so different. Completely, utterly different. So much so, that we no longer live. But having passed through a death, we find something completely unexpected: We are now more alive than we ever even dared imagine we could be. We are running and dancing and resting and rejoicing in His arms.
Can we see it? Everywhere we turn, there He is. The intoxicating fragrance of His Goodness and Grace and Love and Life and Light and Strength and Joy and Hope and Power and Everything Else is a sense beyond words. There is a coolness and cleanness and quiet to It that goes beyond taste – we see Him. We bathe in Him.
Beloved, have you read this, and said it makes no sense? Change your mind. Say yes. He has already Loved you forever. He doesn’t even need you, and that makes the Love all the more pure. He is calling and shouting and flashing His goodness across the sky of your life – and you know it. Tonight is your night. Just let Him have you. And don’t be surprised if you wake up to a Scent you never imagined (but always dreamed) you could experience.
