The Altar of Love:

Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy! He who goes weeping, carrying seed to sow, Will return with songs of joy, Carrying sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:4-6)

"Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning." (Psalm 30:5)


The Desert:

Much-Afraid looked to the left and right, but through it seemed incredible, there was no way possible by which they could continue to climb upward. The hill they were on ended abruptly at this precipice, and the rocky cliffs towered above them in every direction straight as walls with no possible foothold.

"I can't go down there,' panted Much-Afraid, sick with shock and fear. "He can never mean that --never! He called me up to the High Places, and this is an absolute contradiction of all that he promised."

The she lifted up her voice and called desperately, "Shepherd, come to me. Oh, I need you. Come and help me." In a moment he was there, standing beside her.

"Shepherd, I can't understand this. The guides you gave me say that we must go down there into that desert, turning right away from the High Places altogether. You don't mean that do you? You can't contradict yourself. Tell them we are not to go there, and show us another way. Make a way for us, Shepherd, as you promised."

He looked at her and answered very gently, "That is the path, Much Afraid, and you are to go down there."

"Oh no!" she cried. "You can't mean it! You said if I would trust you, you would bring me to the High Places and the path leads right away from them. It contradicts all that you promised."

"No," said the Shepherd, "it is not contradiction, only a postponement for the best to become possible."

Much-Afraid felt as though He had stabbed her to the heart. "You mean," she said incredulously, "you really mean that I am to follow that path down and down into that wilderness and then over that desert away from the mountains indefinately?"

"Why" (and there was a sob of anguish in her voice) "it may be months, even years, before that path leads back to the mountains again. O Shepherd, do you mean it is indefinite postponement?"

He bowed his head silently, and Much-Afraid sank on her knees at his feet, almost overwhelmed. He was leading her away from her heart's desire altogether and gave no promise at all as to when he would bring her back. As she looked out over what seemed an endless desert, the only path she could see led farther and farther away from the High Places, and it was all desert.

Then he answered very quietly, "Much-Afraid, do you love me enough to accept the postponement and the apparent contradiction of the promise, and to go down there with me into the desert?"

She was still crouching at his feet, sobbing as if her heart would break, but now she looked up through her tears, caught his hand in hers, and said trembling. "I do love you, you know that I love you. Oh forgive me because I can't help my tears. I will go down with you into the wilderness, right away from the promise, if you really wish it. Even if you cannot tell me why it has to be, I will go with you, for you know I do love you, and you have the right to choose for me anything that you please."

....Obediently Much-Afraid raised a little heap of sand and loose stones, which was all she could find in the desert, and again laid down her will and said with tears (for Sorrow had stepped forward and knelt beside her), "I delight to do thy will, o my God."

From somewhere, though they could not see the source, there came a spurt of flame which consumed the offering and left a little heap of ashes on the altar. Then came the Shepherd's voice. "This further delay is not unto death, but for the glory of God; that the Son of God may be glorified."