Immanence

Woodcock Nesting on a Beach. Archibald Thorburn. 1910.

 

Immanence

Evelyn Underhill

 

I come in the little things,

Saith the Lord:

Not borne on morning wings

Of majesty, but I have set My Feet

Amidst the delicate and bladed wheat

That springs triumphant in the furrowed sod

There do I dwell, in weakness and in power:

Not broken or divided, saith our God!

In your straight garden plot I come to flower:

About your porch My Vine

Meek, fruitful, doth entwine;

Waits, at the threshold, Love’s appointed hour.

 

I come in little things,

Saith the Lord:

Yea! on the glancing wings

Of eager birds, the softly pattering feet

Of furred and gentle beasts. I come to meet

Your hard and wayward heart. In brown eyes

That peep from out the brake, I stand confest

On every nest

Where feathery Patience is content to brood

And leaves her pleasure for the high emprize

Of motherhood—

There doth My Godhead rest.

 

I come in little things,

Saith the Lord:

My starry wings

I do forsake,

Love’s highway of humility to take.

Meekly I fit My stature to your need.

In beggar’s part

About your gates I shall not cease to plead—

As man, to speak with man—

Till by such art

I shall achieve My Immemorial Plan.

Pass the low lintel of the human heart.

 

‘Immanence’ is defined as the state of being within a given domain. In philosophy and metaphysics, the word can refer  to the belief that the Divine Spirit is seen to be manifest in the natural world. It is sometimes contrasted with ‘transcendence’—the idea that  God exists outside  the natural world. Many believe, as I do, that the Bible makes clear a beautiful and mysterious relationship between the two.