“the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion…” Isaiah 30:18
This week, I’ve had the anticipation of being reunited with my best friend and sister.
And I’ve talked about it before, leading up to it, and posted all about it, so I won’t dwell on it too much because that’s not the story I’m trying to tell. But anyways..
I was standing there by the glass, my hand on the railing. Excitement, anticipation, expectation were all coursing through my body. I was tense and eager. Scanning every person’s face, trying to find the one that looked familiar. Piles and piles of humans came up the escalator, hugging their loved ones, or bustling by to find their bags. Some would pause in the center of it all, blocking my view, that’s when I realized how tense I really was. I thought of what this moment would be like so many times over in my head, and now it was finally here.
Balloons, flowers, and a poster were all in my hand, just waiting to hug my sister.
And I realized that this is exactly how the Lord feels about me, whenever I come to him.
He is excited, he is eager. He’s always ready to grip me with a big hug and kiss on the cheek. He comes with a big smile, arms high in the air, running towards me.
Even if I were to come to Him every minute of every day (which I don’t) He would still be this excited to see me.
Recently, I read the lovely words of Hannah Brencher and I thought of it while writing this blog, “Open your bible. Keep opening it. When you feel like it and when you don’t. When you want to and when Netflix sounds a lot more appealing. The bible is rich and fatty and good for you and still the culture tells us the bible is like lettuce. It’s not flashy. It’s not proud. But it is the living, breathing word of God. If you want to hear him speak, it’s a whole book of him just talking to you.
Meet him. For ten minutes or an hour. As corny as it is to make this comparison, it’s like dating someone who is obsessed with you from date one. They’ve been waiting for you. From the start, they want you so badly. And you are guarded and careful and unsure. But you’ve heard good things. And other people seem to like him. But still you aren’t sure. So would you plunge right in? No, probably not. Would you trust him immediately? No, probably not. And yet this weird sort of longing exists inside of you to be loved carefully, to have someone come along and scale your walls. That longing has always been there. So you creep closer and what do you do? You resolve to know the person. To understand them. To hear their side of the story instead of always screaming out your own. Your own story is not going to teach you about someone else’s. To know someone else is to shut up and listen.”
The Lord is waiting to be kind, and gracious, and loving to us. He is waiting for us to come to Him. He, like the prodigal son’s father, comes leaping towards us even while we are still a long way off. When we come home to Him, He is quick to show us compassion.
