None Beside Thee!
None other Lamb, none other Name,
None other hope in Heav’n or earth or sea,
None other hiding place from guilt and shame,None beside Thee!
My faith burns low, my hope burns low;
Only my heart’s desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,Cries out to Thee.
Lord, Thou art Life, though I be dead;
Love’s fire Thou art, however cold I be:
Nor Heav’n have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home,
but Thee.
~Christina Rossetti
In May 2019, a bright light in the world of spiritual reflection and challenges to the status quo of religious thinking and understanding was blotted out. That is when we lost Rachel Held Evans whose books and blogs unlocked the world of questions and impugned the world of answers! Rachel's sister Amanda Held Opelt has carried on her legacy, and lucky for me she is right up here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I follow her and her spiritually folksy Appalachian blog, and today she introduced me to Sister Sinjin, a folk duo who set Christina Rossetti's poem above to music.
At this turn of the new year, I find these words to be even more essential than they have been before...Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head”
Entire countries of people have no place to lay their heads, and even we with roofs and pillows and eiderdowns search for places to lay our head. No other name, hope, lamb, home have we to lay our head but in Thee. Thank you, Amanda, for carrying a torch for Rachel and just for being you...and for the reminder that only in the Lamb of God can we lay our heads in peace.
Follow Amanda here if you would like.
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