In his epic poem, The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson portrays God as a hound, relentlessly pursuing us however hard we try to escape. Here’s an excerpt.
From those strong feet that followed, followed after
But with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat, and a Voice beat,
More instant than the feet:
All things betray thee who betrayest me.
Could God be wooing us more intensely than the most ardent suitor? How likely is this?
To develop a sound answer to this question, we need to start from knowledge, as good as any knowledge we have, that God loves us, wants us to become like Him and for us to share an eternal intimacy with Him. It’s natural to be unsure of this knowledge. We can’t physically sense God’s love or even glimpse eternity. However, we can know this. We can know this from the unrefuted reasoning you’ll find In Chapter 13 of Discovering Life’s Purpose and in the Meaning of Life Video Series. Of course, our knowledge, that God loves us, wants us to become like Him and for us to share an eternal intimacy with Him, is not absolute. It is as subject to correction as is knowledge based on the scientific method. However, until this knowledge is corrected by science or reasoning, this knowledge, like all
human knowledge, is as good as it gets. But would God’s love for us be as intense and relentless as that of the Hound of Heaven or that of an ardent suitor?
What do we know about love? Do we not know that one cannot make someone love them? A love relationship is dependent on love for each other. The greater the unrequited love, the
longer the wait. Is there any doubt that the love of a perfect creator is perfect - greater than any love we know? Must God not be waiting as long as it takes for us to respond?
What else might God be awaiting? Might He be waiting for us to partner with Him to enable us to become like Him? He can’t make us do our best to become like Him. Partnership, like love, requires participation by both parties. As part of creation, God made us capable of caring for His creation or making a mess of it. One reader of The World is a Mess – What Can I Do About It?, concluded we are not capable of fixing the world. God would agree that we can’t do it alone. If only God can fix what He created, why doesn’t He? Would we learn anything about becoming like Him if we rejected his invitation to partner with Him? Will He fix it for us? Not going to happen! Will He fix it with us? Up to us!
But how does one go about partnering with God? Must not the first step be for us to recognize the partnership invitation? Must we not next ask Him to show us how to become good partners? You’ll find thinking about how we can do this in Is Your Creator Awaiting a Response to Its Constant Outreach?. Must we not, then, bring our best abilities to the partnership? What abilities? Matthew Kelly describes yours and my ability to partner with God to create holy moments. Romeo Dallaire describes yours and my ability to partner with God to insist our governments “wage peace” rather than war. Reading the abilities these two leaders describe, does it not inspire you and equip you to bring your abilities to the partnership God is waiting for you to initiate?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author
of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.