My Amazon Music algorithm had me listening to Irish folk songs. One is The Rattlin Bog. It is similar to the camp song “Green Grass Grew All Round” where it begins with singing about a hole in the ground and in that hole was a tree and in that tree was a limb and on that limb was a branch and so on. It is a tongue twister and fast-paced and it is kinda fun to lead a busload of day campers verse by verse. The Irish song, The Rattlin Bog, is similar. Except with an Irish twang.  

I Google searched “bog” and it essentially means a wetland. The direct translation from Irish Gaelic is from the word bogach which translates to “soft, boggy land.” The Rattlin Bog is about a wetland in the valley-oh and in that bog was a hole and in that hole was a rare tree and in that rare tree was a rattlin’ branch and on that rattlin’ branch was a rare limb and so on, as you try to sing the tongue twister.  

Okay, why am I talking about a catchy, fun Irish song? 

While looking at this week’s topic, I had written down “the root of love (God’s love).” The song was the first thing that came to mind and it just made sense. With each verse, it ends with “in the bog in the valley-oh.” …in the dirt in the ground. You keep adding to what is in the bog, but it always ends in the bog in the valley-oh.

Doesn’t that remind you of God’s love?  

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (I know, I know, the most popular wedding passage but bear with me) states: 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

I once read a social media illustration post about this passage. It was a mother whose teen daughter came home and said, “Mom, guess what! I like a boy!” The mom smiled and opened her Bible to 1 Corinthians 13 and said, “Let’s see what kind of boy he is. Replace love with his name.” The girl did so, then frowned and said, “Well, he wasn’t kind in math. Maybe I shouldn’t like him.” I understood the lesson was that the mother wanted her daughter to find a man of God and someone who loves well. However, I do not know if I agree with that analogy. By that logic, I shouldn’t be allowed to date or be in a relationship (platonic or romantic). I am not always the most patient. I get irritable too. But you know who is always patient, who doesn’t get irritable? God. 

 God is patient and kind, God does not envy or boast; God is not arrogant or rude. God does not insist on God’s own way; God is not irritable or resentful; God does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. In verse eight, it states how love does not end. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In verse 13, it states: “So now faith, hope, and love abides, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  

Although I can have impatient and unkind days and be irritable. I serve a God who loves me unconditionally. Because of this unconditional love, I know how to create and to nurture other relationships in my life. But each of those relationships in my life, whatever they may be, should lead me back to God’s love. 

Because in the rattlin’ bog, down in the valley-oh, is a root and that root is God’s love. 

Elizabeth