"A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense"

I realize that I mention George MacDonald in just about every other blog entry, but it cannot be helped! I am currently reading The Back of the North Wind as well as his Unspoken Sermons. One common theme in his writings is that of Love and the different reactions of Love in hearts of different states of being. For instance, to the soul that has willfully invited Love to dwell within him or her, that person will experience joy and blessedness. For the person that is living in sin, Love is a thing of terror, misery and agony.

"The terror of God is but the other side of his love; it is love outside the house, that would be inside." -MacDonald, The Cause of Spiritual Stupidity

In The Back of the North Wind, the little hero Diamond hears his drunken neighbor abusing his wife and making his baby cry. Diamond, who has been to the back of the North Wind (of which the narrator reminds us rather often), wakes up and quietly creeps into his neighbor's house to comfort the baby. When the drunken neighbor eventually sobers up, he is absorbed with misery. MacDonald writes, "this misery was the voice of the great Love that had made him and his wife and the baby and Diamond, speaking in his heart and telling him to be good. For that Great Love speaks in the most wretched and dirty hearts; only the tone of the voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds. On Mount Sinai, it was thunder; in the soul of St. John it was perfect blessedness."

Praise God for the times when Love echoes within our hearts in tones of stabbing agony. When misery encompasses us, let us be driven to invite Love inside our house, so that His voice may echo in blessed tones.