Tomorrow – and tomorrow – and tomorrow!

Lord, what am I, that with unceasing care,
Thou didst seek after me, that thou didst wait,
Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate,
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?

Oh, strange delusion, that I did not greet
Thy blest approach! and oh, to heaven how lost
If my ingratitude’s unkindly frost
Has chilled the bleeding wounds of thy feet!

How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
‘Soul, from thy window look, and thou shalt see
How He persists to knock and wait for thee!’
And, oh, how often to that voice of sorrow,

‘Tomorrow we will open’, I replied,
And when the morrow came, I answered still,
‘Tomorrow!’

Lope de Vega, 1562-1635

This is a poetic take on the plea of our Lord in Revelation 3:20, where He says, ‘Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me’. Our Lord here speaks to believers, not to unbelievers.

One might even say He speaks to a local church of believers. The point is that, even as believers, we so often lock Him out of hearts, out of our lives, out of our experience. Yet patiently He waits for us to open the door of our hearts, not that He might gives us salvation, but that He might give us His love and communion. Yet how often we still say to Him, ‘Tomorrow’.