| The Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 22 |
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Christ came to tell us of a way in which our soul’s thirsts and cravings may all be satisfied. Instead of crushing them within the heart, He would let them live, and would find perfect satisfaction for them.
These longings within us are not evil in themselves. They are the Divine qualities in our soul crying out for Divine nourishment. We are not bodies — we are souls, immortal souls. We bear the image of God. We belong to heaven. It is no wonder that house and furniture and pictures and sumptuous fare and rich clothing will not answer our higher nature’s needs. How could such things satisfy an immortal soul? Imagine an angel living in the house of one of our worldly millionaires, and living just as the millionaire lives. How much comfort would he get from it all? It is because we have in us the Divine that earth cannot satisfy us.
“Thank God for life; life is not sweet always
Hands may be heavy laden, heart care-full,
Unwelcome nights follow unwelcome days,
And dreams Divine end in awakenings dull;
Still it is life; and life is cause for praise.
This ache, this restlessness, this quickening sting
Prove me no torpid and inanimate thing,—
Prove me of Him who is the life, the spring.
I am alive,—and that is beautiful.”
A traveler tells of holding in his hand the egg of a rare East India bird which was so near the hatching that the bird inside was pecking away at the shell. He could hear it struggling to get out. It was shut away in the darkness, cramped, confined, but it was not content to stay there. It seemed to know that there was a larger life for it outside, that its wings might soar away to greet the morning light, that it might put on splendours of beauty, that it might look on mountains, valleys, and rivers, and bathe in the pure air of sunny skies.
This bird in the shell is a picture of the higher nature which is within every human life. It is not satisfied. It is a prisoner longing to be liberated. It is conscious of a wider freedom, a larger liberty that is possible to it. We are made for communion with God. The mission of Christ is to bring us out into this larger, fuller life. Instead of vainly trying to satisfy our spiritual needs and cravings at earth’s fountains, He leads us to heaven’s fountains. He reveals to us the love of God. He tells us that we are God’s children, and brings us into intimate relations with God. He gives us intimations of a future for ourselves that is full of blessedness and glory. He calls us to this larger life.
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