the husband
“Come back, wandering children!”
I, yes I, am your true husband.
I’ll pick you out one by one -
this one from the city, those two from the country -
and bring you to Zion (Jeremiah 3:14)
God’s relationship with Israel was a stormy one. In the face of Israel’s infidelity, God’s frustration is all over this passage. Yet, his love is unyielding and deeply committed to Israel, like a husband standing by an unfaithful spouse.
From the beginning in Genesis, it seems God has tied His destiny with ours. He entrusted the care of His good earth into our hands as co-creating humans, and we messed up. Yet, He never gave up, even when we pushed Him aside, continually live like know-it-alls, call Him names. Like a marriage, God is committed to us in a deep, fastened, steadfast way.
Why, God? Why did you tempt the fate of your Good World going bad by putting so much faith in us? Why stay true to humanity when we keep thinking we know right from wrong, keep insisting on living life our way? Yet you are the Husband, and you are not going to forsake us. Instead, you are redeeming us to purpose. Bringing us to Zion - a place of freedom, of victory, of Shalom in your arms. Our Good Home.
Your love for us leaves me speechless, unsure of how to respond. How can I rise to such faith, be all you know I can be? How can I deserve such a love? That’s grace and mercy, isn’t it? It’s a calling back to our genesis - to live in communion, with complete trust that father knows best, with a lack of ego to live life as we see fit. Even when humanity shuns that mandate, you are very, very much committed to this redemptive work.
There is hope. That hope is a Father who loves, a Husband who honours the arrangement of Genesis, who is seeking an intertwined heart.
Oh Father. Such love in the face of my insolence is so unfair, doesn’t make sense. It’s a love the world needs but doesn’t know.
Renew me. Let me allow you to bring me back as your co-creator, a child of the Creator. To wean all independence and judgement out, and let you guide.
Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Amen.
