About the eternal HOMELAND, and its JOY.
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: About the eternal HOMELAND, and its JOY.
Scripture Reference:
- Philippians 1 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Jesus knocks on the wall on the other side of which the Soul stands. The Dutch artist and poet, Jan Luiken (1649-1712) was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and composing the poem that accompanies it.
Poem: The Soul longs to be unbound, and be with Christ.
Who questions what stirs me to sing joyously,
Though many miseries and much illness threaten me.
Oh blind wit! That cross, that adversity and struggle,
Is itself the fountain of my joy and my comfort.
Nothing keeps me separated from God, my Love,
Like an old wall, which still stands between us both.
My flesh, the old man, when I see that perish,
From day to day, should tempest and thunderstorm strike him
That awakens a joy in me, as long as he decays,
Weakened by blow and thrust, and is no longer found;
Then I fall, God, the fountain, for which I thirst so much,
Into his arms, safely home and rest on his chest;
There beats that lovely heart, that became a man on earth,
And restored the forsaken Soul as heir.
Then melts my spirit like wax in Jesus’ fire of love,
We become totally unified, what he is by nature,
And in all eternity, that I become by mercy,
So can the hunger of the soul truly be sated.
Oh blind man wake up, consider what thou dost do,
How thou because of smoke and wind dost lose the highest good.
God’s Answer:
“To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His throne.” (Revelation 3: 21)
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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