Jenny Kissed me!
Here’s what I think. I think many of us Christian types
look at a world that sings like a happy drunk and dances like a dervish
and we think we’re missing out on life. I think we console ourselves
with the thought that while in this life we’re miserable (we’re supposed
to be, right?) but one day we’ll be rewarded for being miserable for
Christ’s sake. What a tragic view of Christ, what a tragic view of his
intentions and what a tragic view of life as it even now lies before us.
(I do recognize that there are lonely and oppressed people for
whom life in its entirety will always be pain. Of these poor souls I
have nothing to say just at this moment. This is for those of us who
despite troubles and heartache are richly blessed in life.)
Leigh-Hunt,
with the heart of a romantic and eyes to see where the profound riches
of life are to be discovered wrote something that the blessed but blind
among us would do well to reflect on.
Jenny kiss’d me when we met
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, you love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss’d me.
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, you love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss’d me.
Don’t
you love that? Unless you’re one of those that snarl, "Bah humbug" when
romance is talked about you’ll surely smile with pleasure at
Leigh-Hunt’s joy. Whatever else he missed, whatever he went without, no
matter about failing health, loss of independence, economic hardship or
living and dying in obscurity and feebleness—none of it changed this one
mesmerizing truth and life-defining experience, Jenny kissed him.
People
would watch him growing old and getting feebler but every now and then
they’d catch him smiling to himself and they’d wonder why.
He’s remembering.
To
have one Jenny and every bit as important—to be able to recognize that
Jenny when you meet her; to have the heart that can see Jenny in that
light means a man can die rich and happy.
I know there's more to
be said, I know there are tough questions that warrant answers but those
are subjects for another time. Not now! Not for millions of us! We're
too blessed to pretend we're victims, too rich in lovely and uplifting
experiences to pretend we've been robbed. We won't do it! For me
personally, to know that "Ethel kissed me" and for fifty-three years
loved me however much a failure I've been means I have absolutely no
grounds for taking out my pains and losses and making them the entire
story of my life. Other poor souls will come to God when it's all over
and show him hands that were worn out with work since they were boys or
girls and they'll tell him their sad stories. I won't be able to do that
and my suspicion is that the most of all who might read this will feel
the same.
Filled with joy and the romance of life and the
Christian adventure GK Chesterton would say things like, "One Sun is
splendid: six Suns would be only vulgar. One Tower of Giotto is sublime:
a row of Towers of Giotto would be only like a row of white posts. The
poetry of art is in beholding the single tower; the poetry of nature, in
seeing the single tree; the poetry of love, in following the single
woman; the poetry of religion, in worshipping the single star."
To
know one lovely child, to have one glorious friend, to experience one
glorious day, to do one glorious and selfless deed in one glorious and
selfless moment of sheer unadulterated generosity—that’s living!
To
know one God, one Lord Jesus Christ and one Spirit in whom the Father
and Son have eternal fellowship—that’s life eternal. A man or woman, boy
or girl can die rich like that.
Others in their millions will
come before God after a life of ceaseless soul-crushing poverty,
abuse—crushed and empty. I won't! I won't because I can't. I have two
lovely sons and a lovely daughter and some friends who came into my life
and stayed. I have some enemies—some of them I've earned, but all in
all I've been blessed beyond measure by Him who gave his all for the
entire human family (and for me as part of it). That would be and is
enough! But from His generous hand I got a bonus:
"Ethel kissed me."