Love is Home
George MacDonald
Love is the part, and love is the whole;
Love is the robe, and love is the pall;
Ruler of heart and brain and soul,
Love is the lord and the slave of all!
I thank thee, Love, that thou lov’st me;
I thank thee more that I love thee.
Love is the rain, and love is the air,
Love is the earth that holdeth fast;
Love is the root that is buried there,
Love is the open flower at last!
I thank thee, Love all round about,
That the eyes of my love are looking out.
Love is the sun, and love is the sea;
Love is the tide that comes and goes;
Flowing and flowing it comes to me;
Ebbing and ebbing to thee it flows!
Oh my sun, and my wind, and tide!
My sea, and my shore, and all beside!
Light, oh light that art by showing;
Wind, oh wind that liv’st by motion;
Thought, oh thought that art by knowing;
Will, that art born in self-devotion!
Love is you, though not all of you know it;
Ye are not love, yet ye always show it!
Faithful creator, heart-longed-for father,
Home of our heart-infolded brother,
Home to thee all thy glories gather—
All are thy love, and there is no other!
O Love-at-rest, we loves that roam—
Home unto thee, we are coming home!
Finding Our Way Back: Why Love is the Ultimate Home in a Disconnected Age
In our contemporary society, we often find ourselves searching for a “home” that isn’t made of bricks and mortar. George MacDonald’s timeless poem, “Love is Home,” suggests that the sanctuary we crave isn’t a place at all, but a pervasive, elemental force.
The Meaning: Love as Atmosphere
MacDonald paints love not as a fleeting emotion, but as the very fabric of existence. By equating love to the rain, the air, and the tide, he suggests it is the “robe” that covers us and the “root” that grounds us. It is both the ruler of the soul and its humble servant. The poem culminates in the beautiful realization that we are “loves that roam,” eventually returning to a Divine Love that acts as our true origin and final rest.
Application to Contemporary Society
Today, we are often overwhelmed by the “ebbing and flowing” of social pressures and fragmented identities. MacDonald’s vision provides a grounding perspective: Love is our natural environment. In a society that prioritizes individual achievement, this poem calls us back to “self-devotion” and communal belonging. It reminds us that despite our modern anxieties, we are constantly held by a “Faithful Creator” and are always, however slowly, walking each other home.
As you read this poem, ask yourself:
In the rush of your daily life, are you acting as a “love that roams,” and what would it feel like to finally settle into the “home” MacDonald describes?
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