The Hound of Heaven

In my weekly Bible Study, I mentioned the poem by Francis Thompson (1890) entitled Hound of Heaven. The 182-line poem captures the idea of a 'hound' relentlessly chasing down a hare. This idea becomes the core reflection of how God pursues us - relentlessly. Obviously, we are not rabbits that are about to be eaten by a hungry God (that's not the point at all), but rather, that God loves us so much that he runs after us until we notice Him and turn to him. This is how the poem starts:

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 mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

Thought: Sometimes we run away from God because we fear that he is chasing us to harm us, but what if the Spirit of God is actually pursuing us, in order to call us back to our Beloved?

Song of Songs 2:8 - Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

Living in Grace

D3LM3