Hope of the Gospel

The Lord knew all the history of love and loss; beheld throughout the universe the winged Love discrowning the skeleton Fear. God's comfort must ever be larger than man's grief, else were there gaps in his Godhood. Mere restoration would leave a hiatus, barren and growthless, in the development of his children.
- George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel

I read the majority of this book by George MacDonald in a dedicated few hours one morning as the foggy hours brightened slowly. 

In The Hope of the Gospel, MacDonald pulls from many sayings of Jesus, especially the beatitudes, and then expands on what those lines mean in terms of what we think and how we act. I like how he often spells out his points in a juxtaposed manner, which draws my attention to a varied perspective of a story I had already known. His phraseology pulls me in as well: old-fashioned and yet so applicable in today's world in all the same ways.

Therefore, that he is empty of good, needs discourage no one; for what is emptiness but room to be filled? Emptiness is need of good; the emptiness that desires good, is itself good.

I read quickly, sipping coffee in between pages, as the words form a thought-process that bridges familiar story with some deeper meaning, and yet I slow down in certain paragraphs where the words need greater attention and underlining. These are practical insights that direct the heart and mind towards God, which we so often exclude from our daily lives.

To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-down from the childlike to the commonplace - the most undivine of all moods intellectual. Our nature can never be at home among things that are not wonderful to us.

While he writes about our deficiencies and how we oftentimes get it wrong, he leaves so much room for hope in his words, that as I read, I feel encouraged that my aim is right and it is with God's help that my actions move me toward that target of purity. I don't feel inadequate, but I feel the need to grow toward a better good.

Every obedience is the opening of another door into the boundless universe of life.