Wrestling The Stranger

Many years ago I wrote an essay based on the hymn, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown.”  The hymn was written by John Wesley in 1742 and tells the story of Jacob’s night-long wrestling match with a stranger as recorded in the book of Genesis 32:24-32.  Have you ever wrestled in the night, struggling to find meaning and purpose in a personal dilemma or a solution to an issue confronting you?  

Come, O thou Traveler unknown,

Whom I still hold, but cannot see!

My company before is gone,

And I am left alone with thee;

With thee all night I mean to stay

And wrestle till the break of day.

…But who I ask thee, who art thou?

Tell me thy name, and tell me now.

In vain thou strugglest to be free,

I never will unloose my hold;

…The secret of thy love unfold;

wrestling, I will not let thee go

Till I thy name, thy nature know.

My strength is gone, my nature dies,

I sink beneath thy weighty hand,

Faint to revive, and fall to rise;

I fall, and yet by faith I stand;

I stand and will not let thee go

Till I thy name, thy nature know.

Yield to me now—for I am weak

But confident in self-despair!

Speak to my heart, in blessing speak,

Be conquered by my instant prayer:

Speak, or thou never hence shall move,

And tell me if thy name is Love.

“Tis Love!

I hear thy whisper in my heart.

The morning breaks, the shadows flee,

Pure Universal Love thou art:

To me, to all, thy mercies move—

Thy nature, and thy name is Love.

Wrestling with the Stranger, that Traveler Unknown, never ceases—“I never will unloose my hold…wrestling I will not let thee go till I thy name, thy nature know….Speak, or thou never hence shall move, and tell me if thy name is Love.”  Wrestling is a necessary part of our journey—without the wrestling, we will never “thy name, thy nature know.”