It is the perfect love story: God's love for us. We were created to have a relationship with God. We were created to desire God, to need Him, to want Him. Through the fall of man, the desire for God was replaced with a desire to satisfy the needs and wants of of our flesh. We entered into a covenant with ourselves, instead of a covenant with God. The awesome thing about this, though, is that God had a perfect plan to bring us running back to Him. What Satan had intended for evil, God used for good. (Genesis 50:20) God has been and always will be working all things together for good for those that He has called. (Romans 8:28-30)
God knows that it is through our love relationship with ourselves, that we will become dissatisfied and yearning for more. It is through the pursuit of ourselves, our needs, our wants, and our desires that God has a great opportunity for His love and grace to abound more in our lives. (Romans 8:18-21) He knows that when we get to the bottom of who we are and cannot find peace and completeness in ourselves, then He has the opportunity to fill up what has been made empty. We begin to pursue God. Not because He needs to be found and eludes us (Rev. 1:8 He always has been and always will be. He always has been available to us), but because we begin to burn with a desire for Him and begin to seek Him. (Matthew 7:7)
God is a perfect, gentle and patient lover. He came for us when we hated Him (Rom 5:6-8) He poured Himself out for us so that we might have life and have life abundantly. And then He waited. He waited with so much patience and with so much love. He waited, knowing our nature. He knew that we would spit in the face of His gift of life to us and run from Him. He also knew that eventually we would come to the end of ourselves. We would stop running from Him and turn back towards Him. We would fall on our knees unable to stand, covered in filth, tears streaking our face, our arms stretched out towards Him, and crying out, "Abba Father, Daddy God, I NEED YOU! Please forgive me, please wash me, please make me whole, please heal me, please hold me." The most beautiful part of this picture, is Jesus. His arms are stretched out towards us and He runs to us. He picks us up and with no condemnation (Romans 8:1), no memory and no reminders of or sins and failures, He pulls us to Him and loves us. (Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 43:25) He rejoices over us and celebrates that what once was lost has now been found. He welcomes us back home.
It is through our transgressions that He woos us back to Him. The very thing that separates us from Him is now the catalyst that will bring us running back to Him. We will pursue a relationship with Him and He will fill us till we are bubbling and overflowing with Him! What marvelous hope there is! There is never any need to suffer under the weight of condemnation or to feel like there is no way that God could ever forgive us for what we have done. He can, He will, and He already has! He is just waiting for us to realize our need for Him.
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