You just can’t make this stuff up. It’s right there for all to read, this story of the Israelites, soon after their Moses-led liberation from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. God provided them with manna to eat but they quickly began to yearn for what they had left behind: fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Numbers 11:5. Can you feature that? Suddenly the terrible oppression they had been living under was forgotten, over-ridden by the demands of their stomachs! (I, of course, would never think of giving in to such pettiness, such whining. Well, come to think of it, having no chocolate might . . .)
In all honesty, that sad story is our story, too. Through Jesus, we’ve been delivered from sin’s bondage, been adopted by God the Father, given abundant, eternal life with Holy Spirit in residence with all his gifts available to us, been called God’s Beloved, His children, inherited more promises than we can shake a stick at – and yet, we can still find the enemy’s temptations alluring enough to retreat into his territory, searching through his stash of ‘pretty poisons’ for ‘fulfillment’ (think Edwin’s desire for Turkish delight.) If only we could say it isn’t so.
But all is not lost. In fact, nothing is lost. Our salvation is no feeble add-on to our lives. We have been ‘made new,’ made the righteousness of God, by Jesus’ sacrifice. We are now holy people, His redeemed, a royal priesthood, a nation belonging to God. We are forever, unalterably loved. Whatever sins cloud our relationship with Jesus only hinder our relating to him, not him relating to us! His eyes of love never waver. His face is permanently toward us. Our feelings about his closeness to us, his love for us, his acceptance of us, are just that – feelings, out of touch with our new reality. The truth remains (he loved us first).
We walk in the sunshine-warmth of Eternal Love. God is love (1 John 4:8). He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). We cannot dim God’s love any more than we can dim the light of the sun (or any more than we can stop a river from flowing by sticking our hand in the water). We, all of us as children of God, are currently ambassadors of His Kingdom, those whose very presence represents Jesus to those around us. This, too, is something you just can’t make up. We are swimming in God’s grace and mercy. Makes you want to sing his name*, doesn’t it? PD
