Love

Lord Jesus,

Please help me to love you, to embrace you,
   though I once took lust and sin in my arms.
You loved me before I loved you,
   an enemy, a sinner, a loathsome worm.
You claimed ownership of me when I disowned myself;
You love me as a son,
   and weep over me the way you did over Jerusalem.
Love brought you from heaven to earth,
   from the earth to the cross,
   from the cross to the grave.
Love caused you to be
   weary, hungry, tempted,
   scorned, scourged,
   buffeted, spat upon,
   crucified, and pierced.
Love led you to boy your head in death.
My salvation is the point where
   perfect created love
   and the most perfect uncreated love
      meet together;
   for you welcome me,
   not like Joseph and his brothers,
   loving and sorrowing, but loving and rejoicing.
This love is not intermittent, cold, changeable;
   it does not cease or abate for all my enmity.

Holiness is a spark from your love
   kindled to a flame in my heart by your Spirit,
   and so it ever turns to the place
      from which it comes.
Let me see your love everywhere,
   not only in the cross,
   but in the fellowship of believers
   and in the world around me.
When I feel the warmth of the sun
   may I praise you who are the Sun of righteousness
      with healing power.
When I feel the tender rain
   may I think of the gospel showers
      that water my soul.
When I walk by the riverside
   may I praise you for that stream
      that makes the eternal city glad, and washes white my robes
      that I may have the right to the tree of life.
Your infinite love is a mystery of mysteries,
   and my eternal rest lies
   in the eternal enjoyment of it.