Saturday Selah: Taking On the Taste & Color of Wine. . .

". . .Thy will be done," will be our prayer and our delight. Just as a little drop of water mixed with a lot of wine seems to entirely lose its own identity as it takes on the taste and color of the wine; just as iron, heated and glowing, looks very much like fire, having lost its original appearance; just as air flooded with the light of the sun is transformed into the same splendor of the light so that it appears to be light itself, so it is like for those who melt away from themselves and are entirely transfused into the will of God.

This perfect love of God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength will not happen until we are no longer compelled to think about ourselves and attend to the body's immediate needs. Only then can the soul attend to God completely.

~ Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153)
From his treatise On the Love of God

Bernard of Clairvaux spent his entire adult life in a monastery and writes in his treatise that he is not certain that this degree of love can be attained in this life.

That anyone in the 21st Century -- with all our selfish endeavors and needless distractions -- thinks that they can attain it is bizarre to me.

Have you ever really thought about the lyrics to the children's song, Jesus Loves Me?

They've always troubled me. They don't tell the whole story.

YES! Jesus loves me. Duh! That's a given. . . .

The greater question is this: "How Much Do I Love Jesus?"

♥ When we love Him with all our heart, we love the same things that He loves. And it follows conversely that we hate the things that He hates.

♥ When we love Him with all our soul, we choose to act on the things He loves by reaching out to the world around us and helping those in need. It also means that we choose to stand against the things He hates and work to either prevent them from occurring or end them.

♥ When we love Him with all our mind, we understand that all of what we have learned and desire to learn academically belongs to Him.

♥ When we love Him with all our strength, we give up our will. . . and as Bernard of Clairvaux so eloquently puts it, we "melt away from [our]selves and are entirely transfused into the will of God." We become the drop of water in a beautiful vessel of wine. We lose our identity. And we take on the taste and color of wine . . . .

I'm not there. I'd like to be . . .

~ Esthermay Bentley-Goossen

© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife

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Saturday Selah a time of encouraging one another with words that have touched our hearts or made a difference in our lives over the past week. Your post could be a Scripture passage, a devotional thought, the lyrics to a song, or anything else that ministered to you this past week.

Your post can be brief. Your post can be long. Sometimes brevity speaks volumes. And sometimes God gives us much more to share!

To be encouraged and to encourage others, link up with Patricia at TypingOneHanded.