Tag, You're It

Early this morning as I was spending some time in prayer and just talking to God about life, I heard sirens going off everywhere - firetrucks, ambulances, and possibly even cop cars - downtown. As I was listening to them I started thinking about the love of God. So many times, we ourselves take God out of the picture of our life, whether we mean to or not. We get so wrapped up in busy schedules, people, or just pure laziness; we don't give God the time he desires of us. But listening to all of these sirens made me think about how God chases after us as long as it takes. Like those important vehicles, God doesn't let anything stand in the way of getting to where he needs to go. Whether He needs to move mountains, oceans, or even forests, He will get to His destination - He removes any obstacle that stands in His path. But when it comes to us, His creation, He removed the one obstacle that stood in the way of us and Him - sin.


Isaiah 59:2 says - "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." When I first read this, it broke my heart because for God not to hear me because of my sins is the most terrifying thing to me. God is my everything but sin separates me from Him. But  I remember this obstacle that stands in the way and how God removed it (no matter the cost) with the death of His only son - Jesus Christ. And unlike the old way, this was a one time sacrifice that covered all sin for eternity. That is the beauty in God's sacrificial love: to cover us forever in His blood.


Isaiah 59 goes on to say, "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins, declares the Lord." The Redeemer being Jesus, came charging after us even in our unrighteousness because His love was too great. We can even see that in the very beginning of Genesis when God makes coverings for Adam and Even right after they had done exactly what He told them not to do.


"Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!" ~ Romans 5:9-11 (MSG)


This love is better than any earthly love we will ever come in contact with.