This morning? I daydreamed. As I’m reading Jeremiah 12, I came across verse 16, and my imagination was ignited.
“…to swear by my name, “As the Lord lives…””
Jeremiah 12:16
All at once I’m thinking of Narnia, of those lovely characters & how they swear “by the Lion’s mane”. I feel that rush of desire, to continually pledge my allegiance to my Lord, as they did then. In Narnia, the story written by CS Lewis, the characters all continually speak of Aslan, the great Lion. He is spoken of with such tenderness & love, and he speaks to his children in the ways I always hope God will speak to me. The emotion I feel when Aslan is present in the story is exactly how I want to approach my Lord. That story stirred in my heart love for my savior that I had not experienced; the romantic expression of longing for & delighting in God’s presence was new. I love the way I can usher in those feelings of my devotion to my savior by using the words, “As the Lord lives” just as they do in the Chronicles of Narnia.
From the text, it seems (I’m not a Bible scholar) as though Jeremiah is being told it’s favorable for them to swear “as the Lord lives!” As opposed to the allegiance pledged to the god baal in that time. The New Testament tells us that when Jesus came, he instructed them not to swear. But to “let your yes be yes, and your no be no”. I’m curious though why we don’t use, “As the Lord lives!” Because it stirs something in my heart as I declare it.
I will have to do some more digging, but I hope that if you share my romantic soul, that it woos your heart as it does mine to declare my affection.
Blessings,
gabrielle prose
My Life in Prose 