Much-Afraid

One of my favorite allegories of our walk with Christ is Hinds' Feet on HIgh Places by Hannah Hurnard. The main character is Much-Afraid. She was called out of her ordinary life in the valley and met by the Shepherd. In the novel, the Shepherd tells Much-Afraid, "to love does mean to put yourself into the power of the loved one and to become very vulnerable to pain, and you are very Much-Afraid of pain, are you not?...But it is so happy to love, it is so happy to love even if you are not loved in return. There is pain too, certainly, but Love does not think that very significant" (25). Even though Much-Afraid was fearful of the journey she was about to take, she presses on with the Shepherd's encouragement.

Later in the novel, a few pages into Much-Afraid's journey, the Shepherd returns to her and says, "I must tell you a great truth, Much-Afraid, which only the few understand. All the fairest beautites in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about, or can only dimly guess at. Every inner response of the human heart to Love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of Love. Many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unknown to the world, is a veritable garden in which Love's flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of Love himself walks and rejoices with His friends" (57).

I often think of this quote from the novel. What a pure picture to aspire to...where the King of Love will walk in the veritable garden of our lives and rejoice with us!