And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball.
I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’
And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marvelled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness.
And I was answered in my understanding:
It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it.
And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.
In this little thing I saw three properties.
The first is that God made it.
The second that God loves it.
And the third, that God keeps it.
Julian of Norwich ― Revelations of Divine Love
1384 to c1416
Photo credits: Adobe Stock / NASA