About

“Wonder, love and praise” is part of a lyric from Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling:”

 

Finish, then, thy new creation;

True and spotless let us be.

Let us see thy great salvation

Perfectly restored in thee.

Changed from glory into glory,

Till in heav’n we take our place,

Till we cast our crowns before thee,

Lost in wonder, love and praise.

 

Wesley tells us that to be in the presence of God is to be “lost in wonder, love and praise.” I know what he means, for I have had a taste of that lostness with the births of each of my five children. They are all grown now, with families of their own, but I can recall, can never forget, what it was to be lost in their small bodies, molded against my own, lost in wonder at their downy heads, lost in praise for this son, this daughter, brand new and yet somehow always known, always desired, always this one and no other. 

 

To be lost in love is to be truly found.

 

For decades I have been reading and studying and writing about scripture and liturgy and the faith I trust will lead me home. Hundreds of articles, columns, reflections, and many books, parish retreat talks and ministry conference speeches later, I’m still captivated by what I read and learn. Currently, I write for Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press. I’m working on a memoir born out of the hard Panhandle ground on which I was born and raised. And I want the chance to share some of what I have written and am writing on this site. Chronicling the journey, I suppose, to that place where the only thing to do with a crown is to cast it down before the One for whom we long. The One we will fully, finally recognize — yes — the moment our eyes open in death. Open to see — always you, always — and so be lost, lost in wonder, love and praise.