CREEDE HINSHAW: God’s happy convergences

Who doesn’t love a happy convergence of events unexpected and unplanned? It is satisfying to make a plan and see that plan bear fruit but even more pleasing is the fortuitous merging of unrelated circumstance.

Sometimes it comes to pass that those happy circumstances bump up against each other almost immediately. That’s what happened to me this week.

I am reading Daniel Boorstin’s classic work “The Creators.” Boorstin explores the history of creativity from Confucius to the Roman use of concrete, from architecture to music, from law to theology, from prose to drama, theatre and poetry. And so I was reading about John Milton, best remembered for “Paradise Lost.” Boorstin described how Thomas Ellwood (1639-1713), a prominent Quaker and close friend of Milton, inspired this genius to write his next work.

Milton had handed Ellwood the manuscript of “Paradise Lost” and, when his friend finished reading it, he asked Milton one simple question: “You have written eloquently about paradise lost. What do you have to say about paradise found?” That piercing comment led to Milton writing the companion book “Paradise Found.”

I had never heard this story before. Nor had I heard of Thomas Ellwood. As far as I knew, when I finished my chapter that evening that was the end of Ellwood. The story was inspiring but nothing in it prompted me to further explore this man’s life or work.

The very next morning while sitting on my front porch Mr. Ellwood again popped into my life in a happy God-directed coincidence. As a part of my morning devotionals I usually try (fairly unsuccessfully) to sing one hymn from a large British Methodist hymnal. That morning I had reached hymn No. 555, singing through a quite moving prayer asking God to keep the follower pure in heart, mind and speech. My eyes then fell upon the writer of the hymn. It was the man whose story I had read last night – Thomas Ellwood.

It is his only hymn contained in the 888-page hymnal and had I sung it almost any other day I would have never made or remembered the association.

In less than 24 hours I had learned how Ellwood inspired Milton and then discovered that this Quaker was also a poet/writer of hymn texts.

Now, I began exploring Mr. Ellwood’s life, eager for details. Wikipedia, a good start, outlined the hardships and imprisonments Ellwood suffered because of his Quaker faith. Then I found extensive excerpts of Ellwood’s life in his own words, including his account of his father’s rejection of him and violence toward him for becoming a Quaker.

This autobiography reminded me of the price many people pay to follow their own spiritual direction, a subject I’ll take up in more detail another week.

The week I simply want to celebrate those happy convergences of goodness and inspiration. Ellwood’s autobiography helped me appreciate his words contained in Hymns and Psalms:

Wash, Lord, and purify my heart,

And make it clean in every part;

And when ‘tis clean, Lord, keep it too;

For that is more than I can do.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].