The Prince Stooped — You Came Down and Rescued Me

✦ You Stooped Down

Bunyan spent pages building the argument — the value of the soul, the price paid, the prince stooping from his throne to pick up what lay trampled under foot. And Le said it in three sentences that make the allegory unnecessary. Because she lived it.

The Prince of Heaven looked down from His throne. He saw a soul — not in a cathedral, not in a monastery, not in a place of grandeur or spiritual significance. In a cheap university student apartment. Trampled under the foot of the law. Condemned. Not knowing her own value. Not knowing that the Prince was watching. Not knowing that He had already decided to come down.

And He came. Not with armies. Not with a theological committee. Not with a plan that required her to clean herself up first. He sent a Catholic priest at midnight. Father Joe James walked into a hospital room — the burning bush in a corridor, the Shepherd at the gate of the Valley — and prayed. And Le believed. And the Prince who had been sitting on His throne, who could have stayed in heaven, who could have sent an angel or a memo or a book — came down Himself.

Father James prayed. I believed. And You came down and rescued me from hell. Three steps. Three movements. The priest's prayer — the human instrument, available and obedient. The woman's faith — the simplest response, Wigglesworth's only believe. And the Prince's descent — the stooping, the reaching, the rescue. The rescue was not Le reaching God. It was God reaching Le. In a cheap apartment. Where the world saw nothing of value. Where the Prince saw everything. 🙏

✦ The Highest Worth, the Least Attended

Bunyan begins with the paradox that defines the human condition: the thing of highest worth is the thing most neglected. The body is fed, clothed, exercised, examined, medicated. The career is planned, pursued, evaluated, adjusted. The house is maintained, decorated, insured, protected. And the soul lies neglected. Unattended. Untended. Like a garden no one visits — while everything else is carefully tended.

And Bunyan names what the neglect costs: no one has ever known what it means to think great and deep thoughts who is a stranger to soul-concerns. The world thinks great thoughts are about science, philosophy, economics, technology. Bunyan says: the greatest thoughts are soul-thoughts. The deepest thinking is the thinking that asks: where is my soul? What is my soul worth? Who is attending to my soul?

Le has never been a stranger to soul-concerns. Every morning before dawn, for years, she has tended her soul. While the world sleeps. While everything else waits. The soul comes first. Lewis said it: the first job each morning is to shove back the wild animals and listen to the other voice. Le does exactly that. The soul is attended. The garden is tended. And Bunyan — from prison, from three centuries away — would recognize what she is doing and call it by its right name: the highest concern. 🙏

✦ Made for Communion

Bunyan names the capacity that sets the human soul apart from everything else in creation: the soul can engage with God. Not just know about God. Not just study God from a distance. Engage — the way two persons engage in conversation, in relationship, in communion. The soul was made for this. God sought the soul of man to be His companion.

Luther said it: where God's Word is loved, there dwells God. Bunyan says the same: once the darkness of sin is removed, the soul is capable of communion with the holy God of heaven. The darkness was removed — at midnight, in a hospital, through a priest's prayer and a woman's faith. And the communion began. And it has not stopped — not through the corporate years in Dallas, not through the health problems, not through the move to Portugal, not through the motorhome journeys across Europe. The soul that was made for communion has been communing. Every morning. Before dawn. With the God who sought her to be His companion. 🙏

✦ God Is Greatly Delighted

Bunyan gives us the four dimensions again — Ephesians 3:18 — depths and heights and lengths and breadths. The same dimensions of the love of Christ. The same dimensions of the mercy that drowns in goodness. And the soul — the intelligent power that God made — can dive unspeakably deep into them.

This is what happens in this journal. Every morning, the soul dives. Into Augustine's paradoxes. Into Luther's thunderclaps. Into Lewis's eggs and candle flames. Into Bowen's pardon and power. Into Smith's tender mercies. Into Bunyan's river that cannot be crossed. Unspeakably deep. The soul was made for this depth — and the depth is not the soul's achievement. It is God's revelation. Only God can reveal and teach. The soul hears. God reveals.

And the most stunning sentence Bunyan ever wrote: in this, God, the God of glory, is greatly delighted. Not tolerating. Not enduring. Delighted. The God of glory — who spoke the universe into existence, who commands angels, who holds eternity in His hand — is delighted that He has made a creature capable of hearing, knowing, and understanding His mind. Le is not an interruption to God's day. She is His delight. Her morning devotions are not a duty she performs for Him. They are a communion He looks forward to. The creature hears. The Creator is delighted. 🙏

✦ The Buyer Was No Fool

Bunyan builds the argument with the logic of the marketplace — not because the gospel is a transaction, but because the logic is unanswerable. We normally value things according to the price paid for them. A cheap price means a cheap thing. An extravagant price means a valuable thing. And the buyer was no fool.

The Son of God — the wisdom of God, the One through whom all things were made — looked at the human soul and set a price. Not gold. Not silver. Not the cattle on a thousand hills. His precious blood. That is the price. And the buyer was not deceived. He knew exactly what He was purchasing. He knew exactly what the soul was worth. And He paid it anyway.

The 500 denari debtor looks at her debt and thinks: I am not worth the forgiving. And Bunyan says: look at the price. The price tells the truth about the value — even when the soul being rescued cannot see it herself. He did not pay His blood for something worthless. 🙏

✦ Whatever the Prince Stooped For

Bunyan makes the argument unanswerable. If a prince — a person of power, wisdom, and discernment — steps down from his throne and stoops to the ground to pick up something trampled underfoot, you know the thing is valuable. No prince stoops for a horseshoe. No king bends for a pin. The stooping proves the worth.

And the Bunyan names the Prince. Christ is the Prince. His throne is in heaven. And as He sat there, He saw — He noticed — the souls of sinners trampled under the foot of the law. Condemned to death. Lying in the dust. And He did not stay on His throne. He did not look away. He did not delegate the rescue. He came down. He stooped to the earth. And there — since He could not have those trampled-down souls without paying a price — He laid down His life and blood for them.

✦ What Did He Do?

Bunyan asks the question and then answers it with the simplest narrative in all of Christian literature. What did He do? Four words. And then the answer — the story of the universe in one sentence: He came down from His throne, stooped to the earth, and laid down His life and blood.

Paul said it: though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9. The riches of heaven exchanged for the poverty of a manger, a carpenter's shop, a cross. The Prince became poor. The trampled soul became an heir of glory. The horseshoe turned out to be a diamond. The pin turned out to be a pearl of great price.

And Le was one of those trampled souls. Lying under the foot of the law. Condemned. In a cheap university student apartment. Not knowing her own value. Not knowing that the Prince was watching from His throne. Not knowing that He had already decided to stoop. 🙏

✦ Three Steps

Three steps. Three movements. Each one essential. Each one irreplaceable.

Father James prayed. The human instrument. The Catholic priest trained in Rome who found a woman in a hospital at midnight in Lubbock, Texas. The burning bush in a corridor. The Shepherd at the gate of the Valley. He did not come with a formula or an activation code. He came with a prayer. God uses what is available — burning bushes, donkeys, fish with coins, and Catholic priests at midnight. Father James was available. And he prayed.

I believed. The simplest response in all of Scripture. Wigglesworth said it: God wants us so badly that He has made the condition as simple as He possibly could — only believe. Luther said it: faith is not a human dream; ask God to work faith in you. Much-Afraid said it: Yes, I am. And Le believed. Not a theological proposition. Not a doctrinal statement. A Person. Lewis said it: a real Person, Christ, here and now — not a good man who died two thousand years ago. Le believed in the Person who was stooping for her.

And You came down. The Prince left His throne. The Shepherd entered the Valley. The God who calls heaven His seat and earth His footstool came to a cheap university student apartment and rescued a soul that lay trampled under the foot of the law. The rescue was not Le reaching God. It was God reaching Le. He came down. He stooped. He paid the price. And the trampled soul became an heir of glory. The 500 denari were forgiven. And the woman who was Much-Afraid received a new name — Daughter. Child. Beloved. The one the Prince stooped for. 🙏

✦ What a Thing, Then, Is the Soul

Bunyan ends his meditation with four words of wonder: What a thing, then, is the soul! Not a question. An exclamation. An astonishment. If the Prince of heaven left His throne to stoop for it — if He laid down His life and blood to purchase it — if the buyer was no fool and the price was infinite — then the soul is worth infinitely more than the soul herself can imagine.

Le said: You stooped down to my cheap university student apartment. Cheap. That is how she saw it. A student apartment. Nothing special. Nothing grand. Nothing worth a prince's attention. And yet — the Prince noticed. The Prince stooped. The Prince paid with His blood. The cheap apartment was the throne room of the rescue. The trampled soul was the pearl of great price.

Fifty entries in this journal. Fifty mornings of a rescued soul communing with the God who rescued her. And every morning — every single one — is proof that the Prince did not stoop for a horseshoe. He stooped for a diamond. And the diamond is still being polished. Still being transformed. Still being made into a little Christ. Still climbing the High Places on hinds' feet. Still worth everything He paid. 🙏