Project 5782 | Day 9

Beautiful Affection of the Father

Scripture Portion

Deuteronomy 32.1-4; 9-14

¹ Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
   and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
² May my teaching drop as the rain,
   my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
   and like showers upon the herb.
³ For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
   ascribe greatness to our God!
⁴ “The Rock, his work is perfect,
   for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
   just and upright is he.

⁹ But the Lord’s portion is his people,
   Jacob his allotted heritage.
¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land,
   and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
   he kept him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹ Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
   that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
   bearing them on its pinions,
¹² the Lord alone guided him,
   no foreign god was with him.
¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the land,
   and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
   and oil out of the flinty rock.
¹⁴ Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
   with fat of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
   with the very finest of the wheat—
   and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.

Quote from Reading

“But I must at once correct myself. I am talking of Affection as it is when it exists apart from the other loves. It often does so exist; often not. As gin is not only a drink in itself but also a base for many mixed drinks, so Affection, besides being a love itself, can enter into the other loves and colour them all through and become the very medium in which from day to day they operate. They would not perhaps wear very well without it. To make a friend is not the same as to become affectionate. But when your friend has become an old friend, all those things about him which had originally nothing to do with the friendship become familiar and dear with familiarity. As for erotic love, I can imagine nothing more disagreeable than to experience it from more than a very short time without this homespun clothing of affection. That would be a most uneasy condition, either too angelic or too animal or each by turn; never quite great enough or little enough for man. There is indeed a peculiar charm, both in friendship and in Eros, about those moments when Appreciative love lies, as it were, curled up asleep, and the mere ease and ordinariness of the relationship (free as solitude, yet neither is alone) wraps us round. No need to talk. No need to make love. No needs at all except perhaps to stir the fire.” Lewis, C.S., The Four Loves: An Exploration of the Nature of Love, Mariner Books: New York, 2012 edition, pgs. 34-35

Provocative Language

“They latching on the back of a tow truck for free rides,
Monty, I was calling Jehovah from knee high,
I was gone and you was sticking your nose up and we see why,
Just because the leaves are fallen don’t mean the tree died,

“When you talk it’s like the truth go missing,
Got me steady speaking now, but you don’t listen,
Y’all don’t talk about the Crucifixion,
Yet you out here wondering why your crew so fiction,”
     – from “More Than I Can Bear”, song by J. Monty