“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last and Living one.
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The reason for not fearing before God is that he is all-glorious, all-perfect. Our being needs the all-glorious, all-perfect God. The children can do with nothing less than the Father; they need the infinite one. Beyond all wherein the poor intellect can descry order; beyond all that the rich imagination can devise; beyond all that hungriest heart could long, fullest heart thank for—beyond all these, as the heavens are higher than the earth, rise the thought, the creation, the love of the God who is in Christ, his God and our God, his Father and our Father.
Ages before the birth of Jesus, while, or at least where yet even Moses and his law were unknown, the suffering heart of humanity saw and was persuaded that nowhere else lay its peace than with the first, the last, the living one:
O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave…and remember me!...
Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
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Commentary
by Dale Darling
Lewis speaks of rational thought as evidence of God (Miracles). MacDonald takes his rationality, and we ours when we hear and follow, through a list of beyonds. Beyond our poor intellect that seeks order, seeks to make sense of in the world: many appear as permanently captured in their self-directed intellect, stuck in theology rather than in Creator. Beyond all that a rich imagination can devise: captured in the joy of the creative process, in entertaining self and others, missing the essential One Who made all things, the One Who will make us complete. Beyond all that the hungriest heart could long for, fulfilled heart thank for: coming closer because less focused on self-sufficiency, there is yet more. The apparent bliss of the fulfilled heart must be as temporary as manipulative intellectual order.
For beyond all these, as the heavens are higher than the earth, than our intellectual tiddlywinks, rises the thought, attracted away from self standing in awe of creation, moaning alas for completeness, for wholeness, the light shines and we see the love of Jesus: our God, our Father.
Life.