Ravaged by the Truth

Our heart is restless until it finds rest in You...

Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself repeatedly running into the same question from various places — a couple friends mentioned it, an artist sang about it, someone wrote it out in an email update, I sensed its presence in a novel. All of these things have, obviously, framed up the question differently, but all of them have echoed the same thoughts: What in the world is the love of God, and how can you actually believe that He loves me?

I must admit I was rather startled when I first stumbled upon this question. As I kept bumping into this issue of the love of God, though, I decided it was such an honest question, and it made me pause and think. The conclusion I came to is this — I believe in the love of God because I catch echoes of it in the beauty of a sunset or in the face of another person. I believe in Love as shivers of delight run throughout my body when I hear a beautiful piece of music. I believe when I receive the gift of a gorgeous story. I believe in the love of God because I’ve seen the tangible evidence of His love in every whisper of my own story.

But no, somehow the questions persist and won’t be silenced by the answer of glory, beauty and hope. How do you know the love of God? How can I be loved by the God of the universe?

I suppose that’s where I realised that I actually knew the love of God because of all the darkness. The goodbyes, the pain, the grief, the evacuation, the hard and the horrible. When I stopped long enough to think on it, I discovered that yes, I do see the love of God through beauty, but I know in the depths of my soul that the love of God is real in the night when the darkness closes in, and there seems to be nothing good left in the world. Then, into the quietness of the shadows comes the breath of the Spirit, and I know I’m held in the love of God. Often, it’s in the darkness that the Light shines the brightest.

That reminds me — the other week I rewatched the film Suprised By Oxford¹, based on the book by the same name. The story is honest and beautiful, and Carolyn Weber is a truly masterful storyteller. The book (and the film) follows Caro’s journey through academia into the heart of Oxford and ultimately to the heart of Truth Himself.

Over and over, Caro is challenged about her searching for something more, something bigger than herself, and finally, her friend Kent frames it like this, “Maybe we reach for something because that thing is there.” So, perhaps all of the interactions I’ve had over the past couple of weeks with friends and strangers, all reaching out for something more — longing to know the truth about the love of God — maybe all the questions actually point to the reality that the love of God is real. It’s a tangible love, and through faith, we can throw ourselves into the depths of His Love.

Right near the end of the film, things end up going a different direction than Caro had dreamed, and she finds herself walking home through the wet, foggy Oxford morning all alone. We hear Caro’s voice almost as if it’s in our heads, as she makes her way through the college and up to the halls —

Maybe we’re made for longing, and we’re restless till we’re ravaged by the truth.

Something about that line completely arrested me. It makes me think of the Augustine quote about our hearts being restless until we find rest in Him.

So, what if it’s true? What if we are made for longing and that ache, that grief that we all bear is because we’re homesick for somewhere we’ve never been. And what if the deep longing inside each of us to discover the love of Jesus for ourselves and that yearning to rest in His love is actually how we were created?

Then we stumble onto the second part of Caro’s thoughts — and we’re restless till we’re ravaged by the truth. Hang on, you might be thinking, I signed up to be loved by God, not to be ravaged by truth. The word ravaged brings up all sorts of uncomfortable things, and to be fair, I’d rather not get caught up in all that. It sounds uncomfortable, and painful, and raw, and unpleasant.

But, friends, what if this is exactly what we’re invited into when we throw ourselves into the arms of Love? When we come to a place of living with our palms up, open and surrendered to the God we serve, then new windows are thrown open, and we can know Love more deeply. Then, as we walk by faith, we are invited to go a step further, to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and to be ravaged by the truth. The truth of who we are, and amazingly, the truth of who God is. We are welcomed to know His heart and His truest character, and at the core of who God is, we find love. Such love that He would willingly die for you. For me. For our wrecked and broken world.

We are invited into a personal love relationship with Jesus, but it’s costly and sometimes messy. It’s certainly not painless, but you’ll never find yourself in danger from Love. As C.S. Lewis put it, “He’s not a tame lion... but He is good.”²

So, how can I actually believe that He loves me? The lyrics from Andrew Peterson’s song “The Good Confession ( I Believe)” perhaps sums up my final answer best —

All I know is that I was blind
But now I see
That though I kick and scream,
Love is leading me.
And every step of the way
His grace is making me;
With every breath I breathe,
He is saving me.
And I believe.

-Andrew Peterson

Maybe all the skeptics are right — there is no scientific answer for this question, no equation that fully explains the love of God, but I disagree.

Look up, dear heart, look around you. That longing to know the truth? It’s holy, and you were created to desire truth and to know the Love of God. Perhaps we are searching for something because that Someone is here. Our hearts are restless and questioning until we’re ravaged by the truth, and our souls find rest in His never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.³

all photos © 2026 Elsie Coppedge

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Life Musings:

The past couple of weeks have been wild! We’ve celebrated a birthday in our house, a dear friend’s baby, the first snowdrops, and finally seeing the sun after weeks of nothing but grey skies and raindrops.

In other news,

• I’ve written an insane amount of papers for a couple of classes, begun a new job (at a toy shop — I have been teased for being so very delighted at the prospect of being constantly surrounded by tiny, beautiful toys).

• Watched lots of Olympics and wished that I could snowboard like that. (Or really just snowboard at all, to be fair.:))

• Read a couple deep, brilliant books — Real England (yep, just because Andrew Peterson recommended it). And Bread and Wine, a most beautiful book on feasting, fasting and the theology of food.

• Edited over half of the novel that I wrote in a week a month ago.

• Jumped into my….*counts on my fingers*….fourteenth Writing With class taught by Jonathan Rogers over on the Habit. For the next six weeks or so, we are Writing With Digory and learning from the master himself: C.S. Lewis in The Magician’s Nephew.

Thanks for sticking with me here, friends. If you have any thoughts or musings on the Love of God, I would be delighted to hear them. Happy February! ;)

Elsie x

all photos © 2026 by Elsie Coppedge

1. Suprised By Oxford. Go read this book!

2. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (Surely you have read this book, right?)

3. The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Loyd-Jones. This is one of my very favourite books in the whole world. It’s faithful and beautiful, and yes, like the other two books, you must go read it.