As a young teen, I was also fascinated by the supernatural. I'd scour the topics of talk shows (in those brief descriptions in the TV guide ... no internet back then) for anything that mentioned ghosts, psychic activity, life after death, etc. I didn't know what I was looking for.
I didn't like horror or vampire stories; I understood there was a dark side and I had grown up with enough anxiety and fear to stay away from that, lol. But the idea of something beyond drew me.
Years later, in my adulthood, I memorized Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven." It's remarkable, isn't it, how often we are drawn to Him by some strange and unexpected avenue, all along hearing and half-fearing that footfall of pursuit?
In all the searching, He waits for us to stop so He can say:
Love your thoughts here, Bonita. Thanks for sharing a bit of your own journey. I've always been fond of the Hound of Heaven, to me, it seems to capture Psalm 23 so well. "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life" is too quaint for the Hebrew. Goodness and love will hound/stalk us all the days of our lives.
Just a poetic flourish, a way of saying that God’s grace pervades everything and that the human soul (outside of Christ) yearns and searches for it without quite knowing what it is.
I love the idea of the world being haunted by grace! What a lovely thought, it makes me want to keep looking for it.
I'm grateful it's a comforting thought to you — it is to me as well! Grace to you Sue!
I absolutely loved this!
As a young teen, I was also fascinated by the supernatural. I'd scour the topics of talk shows (in those brief descriptions in the TV guide ... no internet back then) for anything that mentioned ghosts, psychic activity, life after death, etc. I didn't know what I was looking for.
I didn't like horror or vampire stories; I understood there was a dark side and I had grown up with enough anxiety and fear to stay away from that, lol. But the idea of something beyond drew me.
Years later, in my adulthood, I memorized Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven." It's remarkable, isn't it, how often we are drawn to Him by some strange and unexpected avenue, all along hearing and half-fearing that footfall of pursuit?
In all the searching, He waits for us to stop so He can say:
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!"
Love your thoughts here, Bonita. Thanks for sharing a bit of your own journey. I've always been fond of the Hound of Heaven, to me, it seems to capture Psalm 23 so well. "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life" is too quaint for the Hebrew. Goodness and love will hound/stalk us all the days of our lives.
Why did you say “ the world is haunted by grace?
Just a poetic flourish, a way of saying that God’s grace pervades everything and that the human soul (outside of Christ) yearns and searches for it without quite knowing what it is.