Everyone is in the midst of their own need. No living creature can be separated from its need.
“Their need cleaves to them closer
Than their father and mother.”
That need is their leash, drawing them this way and that, just like a nose-ring and chain. Now, who would make a leash for themself? That is absurd – so someone else must have made it for them.
If we are in the midst of our own need, we are also in the midst of the One who gives us that need. If we are constantly attached to our own leash, we are always connected to the One who draws that leash. But if our eyes are fixed upon our chain, we lose strength and hope. Rather our eyes should be fixed on the One who draws that chain. Then we gladly surrender and accept our limitations. For that leash is around our neck only to reveal the One who holds it.
“Stay away,” they said. “Do not approach.”
How can I keep away, when you are my need?
God gives elders a youthful passion that young people have no knowledge of.
Great is old age,
When the grey hairs appear,
And playfulness runs amok.
Such an elder sees the world with a freshness, as if it were new. They laugh and play.
They ask, “When someone passes eighty, will they play?”
“Will they play before eighty?” I say.
So the glory of old age is greater than God’s display. In spring, God shows Its grace, frail and smiling. In autumn, old age prevails. The worldly garden is ruined. The apparent bounty is gone.
God is beyond everything
That the forces of destruction can sling.
