Understandably, Thomas was heart-broken. He
found a quiet corner, took out his pen and began
to write a poem for Bessie. Manuscript in hand, he
returned to the cottage and persuaded the neighbor
to let him in.
Stealing to the darkened bedroom, he pulled
back the blankets with which Bessie had hidden
her face, and he read to her his new poem:
B
elieve me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today
Were to change by tomorrow and
fl eet in my arms
Like fairy gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.
And there was a second verse:
I
t is not that while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known
To which time will but make thee more dear.
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly lives on to the close,
As the sun
fl ower turns to her god when she sets,
The same look which she turned when he rose.
Thomas took Bessie in his arms, and she
released herself to him. Each of them had
discovered the meaning of unconditional love.
Now I said that this story is as old as his-
tory and as up-to-date as today.
When God created Adam and Eve, He loved
them. Their disobedience made them ugly and
unlovable, but He never gave up on them or
their descendents.
Listen to Jeremiah, the prophet, speaking
to Israel, God's people who had abandoned
Him: "I have loved you with an everlasting
love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness."
And the story is as fresh today as when St.
John declared, "For God so loved the world
that He gave his only begotten son, that who-
soever believeth on Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life."
No matter how ugly your life has been made
by sin, no matter how long you've hidden your
face from God, no matter how far you've wan-
dered from the path of obedience, God loves
you with an unconditional, everlasting, un-
bounded love.
George Wade Robinson expressed it this way:
L
oved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me this is so.
O this full and perfect peace!
O this rapture all divine!
In a love which cannot cease
I am His and He is mine.
Commissioner Robert Thomson
lives in
retirement in Clearwater, Florida.
"I have loved you
with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness."
23
The War Cry | FEBRUARY 2014