Spiritual Quote of the Day (Robert Murray McCheyne, on Jesus and the World, ‘One Vast Howling Wilderness’)

“You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.”— Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843), letter of Mar. 9, 1843, quoted in Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert McCheyne (1844)

(The image accompanying this post was taken by Lorie Shaull on May 26, 2020, showing protesters along and around 38th Street in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd at the hands of arresting officers the prior day. A memorial was made outside Cup Foods, where Floyd died. If America has felt like “one vast howling wilderness” since Floyd’s death, I hope we will remember Jesus’ message of nonviolent witness as the true path to change in our world.)