All shall be well.

I have hesitated these past weeks in posting a new blog because 1) we have been traveling like gypsies and 2) every time I sit down to write something I feel so unprepared. Maybe that's just years of outlines-before-essays talking, but in any case today I just decided to bite the bullet. This will probably just be a precursor to many blogettes about this topic, but so be it! I don't think we as believers can meditate on the fact that "all shall be well" enough.

I'm reading Anya Seton's Katherine. Again. (I have the singularly odd habit, so my husband tells me, of reading books that I enjoy over and over again. Scandalous.) It is an incredible story of history and struggle and redemption that includes a beautiful revelation of God's love at the close that surprises me, surprisingly, each time I read it. It is from this book that the fantastic doctrine of "all shall be well" has been brought to my attention again. Seton uses the nonfictional character of Julian of Norwich as one of the influential spiritual teachers of Katherine Swynford. She quotes Julian's writings verbatim, and while I haven't read her stuff personally or done any research on the validity of her faith (though there are people I know and respect who have read and admire her), it seems to me that most of what she says is right on. Here are some of my most cherished snippets from Seton and/or Julian:

"'It is truth that sin is cause of all this pain; sin is behovable--none the less all shall be well, and all shall be well, you shall see yourself that all manner of thing shall be well.'"

"'I am the ground of thy beseeching.... I am sure that no man asks mercy and grace with true meaning, but if mercy and grace have been first given to him.'"**

"My darling, I am glad thou art come to me: in all thy woe I have ever been with thee; now seest thou my loving."

"It is I, I that thou lovest, that thou enjoyest, that thou servest. It is I that thou longest for, it is I that is all."*

"What a weary time it took to learn how homely and direct the answer was, that it needed no thunderbolts and flaming wonders for Him to fulfill His promise, I will keep thee full securely. That He had as many ways of loving as there were droplets in the ocean, the ocean that was yet all one sea."

I won't pretend I didn't scratch my head at some of those, but once I sort of got them, I just thought, "Yeah."

*Every time I read this quote it reminds me of the end of The Last Battle, when Aslan speaks to Emeth, the young and noble Calormene, and tells him that all his courageous acts and kept promises and honorable deeds that he did in the name of Tash, he in fact did for Aslan. For, as Aslan says, "I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him." And though Emeth had been seeking Tash all his life, "unless [his] desire had been for [Aslan] [he] wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."

**My Bible study indirectly talked about this last night. We are currently studying how marriage, specifically the historical Jewish tradition, parallels the relationship of Christ to the Church. We discussed "prevenient grace" for a while--the truth that God must first choose to extend grace to you in order for you to choose Him (John 15:16). This is quite like a marriage proposal. A woman doesn't walk up to a random guy, tap him on the shoulder and say, "Thanks, but I don't want to marry you." In order for a woman to have that decision, she must first be asked! We all had mini-epiphanies, so I thought I'd share.

Whew. Thanks again for bearing with me. These posts really are mainly for me, because I can't tell you how my thoughts clear up when I write them out. I really should rename this "My Pensieve."

You should know that I think you're wonderful if you made it this far in this post. Though I tend to be sensitive about my writings/thoughts/opinions to a fault, I welcome your comments. :)

May God always season everything I say with the salt of His grace.