A Requiem For Love

I’m working through Calvin Miller’s A Requiem For Love. It is a brilliant, beautiful, and poetic dramatization of the events of Eden. It’s redeeming me in some significant ways. Get a copy.


Chapter II tells the story of Earthmaker (God) breathing life into Regis (Miller gives Adam and Eve the titles Regis and Regina, which mean King and Queen.). The resulting conversation is so beautiful that I’m not sure how to even comment on it, so I’m going to post verbatim.

The naked Prince laid down in the grass
Soaking life from Terra’s (Eden’s) soil.
“Son!” Earthmaker breathed the gallant word,
Soft and often as the breeze that
Whispered oaks alive.
“Gift unto Myself—
The Prince of presence—
Lest I should ever be alone.
Now, Regis, image of My Being,
You are the Child
To brighten My house
And the glad resolution to My years inside Myself.”

The new man listened, overcome by Presence.
To be given all the world at once,
Stopped his tongue
And left his wit too dead for words.
Overwhelmed, he broke the awesome quiet.
“Father, I receive Your gift of being, but
You have made me too rich
To name my wealth
And yet too poor
To give You anything of meaning.
I love with only giftless love.”

“Regis, there is no such thing as ‘giftless’ love.
The very words accuse each other.
My gift to you is love, but
Worship is your gift to Me.
And Oh, most glorious it is!
Worship always calls me ‘Father’ and
Makes us both rich with a common joy.
Worship Me, for only this great gift
Can set you from the killing love of self,
And prick your fear with valiant courage
To fly in hope through moments of despair.
Worship will remind you
That no man knows completeness in himself.
Worship will teach you to speak your name,
When you’ve forgotten who you are.
Worship is duty and privilege,
Debt and grand inheritance at once.
Worship, therefore, at those midnights
When the stars hide.
Worship in the storms till love
Makes thunder whimper and grow quiet
And listen to your whispered hymns.
Worship and be free.”
____________________________________

May you be continually freed.