Lawrence of Arabia and God’s love

A weathercock that once placed a farmer’s barn above,
Bore on it, by the owner’s will, the sentence: ‘God is Love’.
His neighbour, passing, questioned him. He deemed the legend strange –
“Now dost thou think that, like the vane, God’s love can lightly change?”
The farmer, smiling, shook his head. “Nay, friend, ’tis meant to show that ‘God is Love’, whichever way the wind may chance to blow.” (Anon.)

“God is love’ (1 Jn 4:16). Coming at the end of decades of reflection this expression attempts to encapsulate God’s caring, saving action in the gift of his Son. It is the closest the New Testament comes to telling us about the “being” of God.

In his letters Paul develops this testimony, revealing in detail how God’s love is experienced and made known in our lives. “When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless… So it is proof of God’s own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:6,8).

Rita Snowdon relates an incident from the life of Colonel TE Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia). In 1915, during World War 1, Lawrence was leading a company of Arabs across the Sinai Peninsula to attack the Turkish garrison guarding the coast at Aqaba. Things were desperate: food was almost gone, and water down to the last drops. Their hoods were over their heads to shelter them from the wind which burned like fire, and from the stinging sandstorm.

Suddenly someone said: “Where is Jasmin?” Another said: “Who is Jasmin?” A third answered: “That yellow-faced man from Maan. He killed a Turkish tax-collector and fled to the desert.” The first said: “Look, Jasmin’s camel has no rider. His rifle is strapped to the saddle, but Jasmin is not there.” A second said: “Someone has shot him on the march.” A third said: “He is not strong in the head, perhaps he is lost in a mirage. He is not strong in the body, perhaps he has fainted and fallen off his camel.” Then the first said: “What does it matter? Jasmin was not worth half a crown,” — and the Arabs hunched themselves up on their camels and rode on.

But Lawrence turned and rode back the way he had come. Alone, in the blazing heat, at the risk of his life, he went back. After about two hours’ ride he saw something against the sand. It was Jasmin, blind, and mad with heat and thirst, Jasmin being murdered by the desert.

Lawrence lifted him up on his camel, gave him some of the last drops of his precious water, and slowly plodded back to his company. When he came up to them the Arabs looked in amazement. “Here is Jasmin,” they said, “Jasmin, not worth half a crown, saved at his own risk by Lawrence our Lord.”

“Helpless…sinners…Christ died for us… as proof of God’s love for us.”

I slipped His fingers, I escaped His feet,
I ran and hid; for Him I feared to meet.
One day I passed Him fettered on a Tree:
He turned his head and looked  —  and beckoned me.
Neither by speed nor strength could He prevail,
Each hand and foot was pinioned by a nail.
He could not run, nor clasp me  —  if He tried  —
But with his eyes he bade me reach his side.
“For pity’s sake,” thought I, “I’ll set You free.”
“Nay, take this cross,” he said, “and follow Me.
This yoke is easy, this burden light.
Not hard nor grievous, if you wear it tight.”
And so did I follow Him who could not move,
An uncaught captive in the hands of love.