SPRING FORTH NOW 2023

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. This is what the Lord says: “Those who survive the coming destruction will find blessings even in the barren land, for I will give rest to the people of Israel.” Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines. Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there. The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God.’”

Jeremiah 31:1-6 (NLT)

The process of life, as challenging as it may be and unpredictable as to what will be the outcomes is navigated best when we remember not only that God loves us but that we are Loved by God. The difference between being Loved as opposed to loving us in our present state is that when you are Loved you are Loved no matter your state, thus you are Loved with an everlasting love. I wish I can predict that I will be this way or that way or do the right thing all the time but that is not so, as Paul says every time I want to do right, I do wrong, thus, to love me in the present may not always seem possible but to be Loved regardless, supports me even in my unlovable state. The Bible, we know as the Word of God, records a love story between God and humanity, and the story is made real in its proclamation that God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God created and did everything for us to be fruitful and multiply and enjoy the fullness of life and life more abundantly, however, we kept messing it up. However, because God Loved us, He had already prepared a way, despite and in spite of the distance we created or traveled to separate ourselves from Him and His intent. Before the world was ever created God, because of His everlasting love to and for us, provided a way, an assurance that we still could harvest the fulfillment of His intent; a Most Favored Status, providing for us a way to yet be fruitful and multiply.