come

“For i will set my eyes on them for good and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.” - Jeremiah 24:6-7 

These verses are beautiful no matter what angle you look at them from. They show the heart of the Lord and its evident desire to lead us and for us to follow. However, when these verses are read within the correct context, they become even deeper and richer in meaning. The Lord speaks here of His beautiful plans to build up this people and He calls them His own. The mind blowing thing is that these people weren't always His. The people He now calls His own had forsaken and forgotten His name over and over again. time after time these people strayed from Him and did not remain faithful to Him yet every single time He still says to them: “Return to Me.” What a beautiful picture that is and what a merciful God. He calls them HIS despite the fact they had never lived like it. They turned way their faces and shut off their hearts to His words yet His compassion continues to extend. God’s message to us is always to come- come broken, come hurting, come needing, come dirty- just come. No strings attached. 

The other mind-blowing part of all of this is that we are these people! We all have strayed and sinned, yet He gives us second chance after second chance and He forgives simply because He loves. He speaks to our wicked hearts “return to Me.” Surely there is no one like our God.