“I appeared to them from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV).
Author, David Prince, once told of a family who adopted an older child from an unspeakably horrific orphanage in another country. When they brought the little girl home, one of the things they told her was that she was expected to clean her room every day. When she heard about that responsibility, she fixated on it and saw it as a way she would earn her family’s love. Every morning when her parents entered her room, it was immaculate and she would sit on the bed and say, “My room is clean. Can I stay? Do you still love me?” The child’s words broke her new parents’ hearts.
Eventually, the girl realized she would never be abandoned because she was loved unconditionally. She was not a visitor trying to earn her place in the family. Rather she was an inseparable part of the family. Even when disciplined for improper behavior, she did not question her parent’s love for her.
During the sixth century before the birth of Christ, the people of Israel questioned God’s love for them. The Jewish people refused to follow God’s commands. Their disobedience eventually led to a national catastrophe, as Israel’s enemies had decimated the capitol city of Jerusalem.
God, however, assured the Jews of his unwavering love for them. “I have always loved you,” God declared, “so I continue to show you my constant love.” Even though God’s people had turned their backs on God, God vowed that He would never turn away from them.
Many of us view our relationship with God as a visitor attempting to earn our place in the family. We fear that the room in our hearts will not meet God’s immaculate expectations, and that that God will evict us. Yet God insists that any corrective measures we may receive are born, not from contempt, but out of God’s unlimited compassion for us. As the adage goes, God loves you just as you are, warts and all. Yet God loves you too much to leave in this condition.
The problem isn’t that God refuses to forgive us but that we cannot conceive how merciful God truly is. Our greatest challenge, however, is not to understand God’s grace, but simply to accept it for the unimaginable gift it is. In their 2012 hit single, Redeemed, Mike Weaver and Benji Cowart, wrote:
All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, “Child lift up your head”
I remember oh God, You’re not done with me yet
I don’t have to be the [person I once was]
Cause [that] day is long dead and gone
I’ve got a new name, a new life I’m not the same
And a hope that will carry me home.