“The Hound of Heaven” is a poem by Francis Thompson, first published in 1893. The poem runs to 182 lines, and is tough sledding, even for English majors. But it is a masterpiece, and deserving of the acclaim that it has brought the poet, though most of it came after his death in 1907.
The poem begins by setting the stage of a pursuit:
“I fled Him down the nights and down the days. . .” The “Him,” of course, is God, in the person of Christ, who was pursuing the poet in love. Thompson describes hiding from God in his mind, in nature, in his work, and in his loves, all to no avail. He could find no resting place, until finally, he turned to face the Great Pursuer, only to be embraced by His love.
The interesting thing is that the would-be refugee knows that God loves him, but runs all the same. Why?
“(For, though I knew His love Who followed,
Yet was I sore adred
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside).”
Aha, and there it is, and the reason why many, if not most of us, have run from God’s love. We assume that if we submit to His love, and make a commitment to Him, it will mean abandoning everything and everyone else. Emotionally, it seems an unwise gamble, an impossible risk.
Even Jesus spoke of our need of “hating” our family to be worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26). So, is that the way it works? It’s either God or everything / anything else?
Not quite. As Thompson finds, near the end of the poem, all of the things he was seeking in others, namely love, is found in God and God alone. He is the great satisfaction because only He is the great Satisfier. In God we discover a Person who loves us just because He is love, and not because of our loveliness.
Because God is not a desperate lover, pursuing me to get something He needs, He can and does love freely, and, in fact, creates loveliness in those who receive His love. This is the freest of all loves, bent on creating freedom in the beloved. To believe and sense that you’ve been loved by God is a feeling like being Home, because He IS Home for all who are in Him.
Jesus Himself assures us (Matthew 19:27-29) that in Him, any and all sacrifices pale in comparison to what we receive. The Apostle Paul, in Romans 8, says the same thing about our suffering.
Thompson’s fear that somehow he would be impoverished by loving God reminds us of Satan’s lie about God in the Garden, doesn’t it? He convinced Eve that God was actually withholding something good, and it’s easy for us to be similarly deceived. But God IS love, and can do no wrong, and we need never fear that He has anything less than our best interests at heart. Jesus’ work for us demonstrates this reality (Romans 8:32).
Nearing the end of a year seems like a great time to come to the end of yourself, too. Have you had the experience of running away from the Lord, fearing that He would take everything from you? Fear not. For in Him we have all things.
“So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
1 Corinthians 3:21-23