From Bliss Above

Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;
I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared:
Give thou me love for love.

- Christina Rossetti

I just read through a book of poetry of Christina Rossetti's, a lovely book I picked up in London (at the wonderful Daunt Books) to bring home. So many times, re-reading an author offers new insights, as our viewpoints shift over time. When we read it years ago, in college for example I remember reading "Goblin Market" in English class, we don't glean the wisdom and beauty as we might now. I like the philosophy of reading that C.S. Lewis commented on. That the mark of a good reader is that they re-read books, and don't just read them once. This, of course, is practically impossible, however with good, favourite books, it is possible, and I certainly re-read the best of my library. For there is some new insight gained from our current perspective when you read it again.

These lines of Rossetti's captured me as I read the poem. I had to stop and read them again, and then read the whole poem again. A strong sense of love is clear in the powerful words - dared, plunged, depth, spared. I feel a keen sense of knowing here. A knowledge that is beyond us. A knowledge of the cost of loving us. Jesus is the speaker, and He risks it all to love us. Who else would love undeserving folk who do not understand such perfect love? He did not spare His flesh. He did not spare His spirit, but He yearns for us to love because He first loves us. It is not a forced love, or it would not be true. He came to us from bliss above. I wonder if we forget sometimes that Jesus came to us, leaving the heavenly realm and into the depths, to be next to us in all our struggles. He doesn't seek to rule from above us, but to love us here now, in ways that permeate all moments of our every day.