Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Thou hidden Love of God, whose height,

Whose depth unfathomed no one knows,

I see from far Thy beauteous light,

And inly sigh for Thy repose;

My heart is pained, nor can it be

At rest, till it finds rest in Thee.

Each moment draw from earth away

My heart that lowly waits Thy call;

Speak to my inmost soul and say,

“I am thy love, thy God, thy all!”

To feel Thy power, to hear Thy voice,

To taste Thy love, be all my choice.

- from the hymn “Thou Hidden Love of God”,
translated by John Wesley, Anglican priest,
born on this date, 1703


Wesley is one of the most prolific hymnologists found in the Episcopal Hymnal, and I am sure in the hymnals of most English and American Christian churches.

He touches so many very pertinent points about the God(s)/Goddesses that we, along with every human community, have conjured up in our imagination to comfort (at least) or inspire(at best) our striving to be as beautifully human as we can be. No matter how unconditionally loving we imagine God to be, God is of a “depth unfathomed”. No matter what we can think of, more is “hidden”. When we are in the deepest depths of suffering or pain or depression, we sense that we can find “rest in Thee”.

Every human life is destined for unfathomable beauty. We all sense that in our hearts. We picture it as “heaven” – a sense that we are being drawn “from earth away”. But our destiny is not in another realm. It is HERE! Once we understand that “the kingdom is God is within”, once we “feel Thy power, hear Thy voice, taste Thy love”, we know who we are. Then we really begin to live this amazing Life we have been given.

There is an old English hymn which contains the line, “and was Jerusalem builded here / among those dark satanic mills”. The answer is Yes, metaphorically. Earth is Heaven, when we know, really know, that We are God and God is Us.

Brian+