Years ago, the poet, Francis...
Illustration
Object:
Years ago, the poet, Francis Thompson, wrote one of the best-loved religious poems ever,
celebrating the insistent nature of God's pursuit of us. He called it "The Hound of
Heaven." The beginning part of it goes like this:
I fled him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled him down the arches of the years;
I fled him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter....
Yet this pursuer is insistent. He will not be shaken from his course, as ...
... those strong feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurried chase
and unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the feet --
"All things betray me, who betrayest me."
God pursues not only individuals. In the book of Exodus, we read of how God pursues an entire people -- giving them, at the right time (and through the most extraordinary circumstances) just the leader they needed: Moses.
I fled him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled him down the arches of the years;
I fled him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter....
Yet this pursuer is insistent. He will not be shaken from his course, as ...
... those strong feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurried chase
and unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the feet --
"All things betray me, who betrayest me."
God pursues not only individuals. In the book of Exodus, we read of how God pursues an entire people -- giving them, at the right time (and through the most extraordinary circumstances) just the leader they needed: Moses.
