I Breathe

Thy fishes breathe but where thy waters roll;
Thy birds fly but within thy airy sea;
My soul breathes only in thy infinite soul;
I breathe, I think, I love, I live but thee.
Oh breathe, oh think,-O Love, live into me;
Unworthy is my life till all divine,
Till thou see in me only what is thine.

- From the Diary of an Old Soul, George MacDonald (1880)

I am discovering the beautiful works of, and maybe a kindred spirit in, the Scottish author, poet and minister, George MacDonald.

I breathe, I think, I love, I live but thee.  I come face to face with this reality.  I find it at the end of me, there where there is nothing else -- no dependencies, no bowing to false religion, no chasing other lovers.

In the naked place I rest.  I reach.  I be -- all dependent on the All-Sufficient One.  I let go and see: Love lends a hand, makes a way, gives me breath again.

Can it be?  Here, now?  On earth as it is in heaven?  Can I live free of me?

Yes.  The answer is yes in Christ -- He who became sin for me.  He died self-less and sin-full, all dependent on Another to raise him.  The Seed of God was planted in the earth to die, to shatter sin's hard curse, to break through with Life.  The Son of Man was born again, is born again...in me.

He rose, dead to sin and alive to God.  He rises yet again in me.  Love lives into me.

And I -- I breathe, I think, I love, I live but Thee.  

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  ~ Romans 6:11 (NIV)

Today I join Ann Voskamp and the community of ones who give thanks.  (Click button below to read other grace lists.)

201.  Life and breath and breathing Thee.
202.  Kindred friends who have gone before to love from the Cloud.
203.  And those whose love fills earth now, all spirit-birthed from the same Womb.
204. Yeshua, who calls me to follow, to know (yada) Where I am going, and from Where I come.
205.  Great grace, how sweet the sound.
206.  The singing of birds.
207.  The dying of seeds.
208.  For life ever blooming.
209.  Light shining through trees.
210.  And Love ever living into me.




 Click to read more about my Journey of Gratitude.


Photo Courtesy:  flickr - Xeaza