I haven't posted any poetry for a while. The verses below describe God's unshakeable commitment to His people -- His loving determination to conform us to the likeness of Christ. The process is painful, but the result will be glorious. That reminder has encouraged me this week:
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre --
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
~ T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Refined by fire
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2 comments:
I misread "posted" for "composed", and so was very impressed indeed until I reached the end! Reminds me of Jim Elliot and friends, a play about whom I saw last week.
I remember singing a piece of music by Stravinsky, which is a setting of those words, when I was 13. I hated it because it was so dischordant and tuneless. But now that I appreciate the words a bit more I can't get the tune out of my head.
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