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by Kevin Pauley
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.” - Jeremiah 31:3
They say hind sight is 20/20. We look back on our lives and see God at work. Those situations that we thought would be the end of us turned out to be our finest hour. Those people that we mistakenly thought were our best friends or the loves of our lives, ended up being jerks. We were heartbroken when we lost them and shook our little fists at God and cried “Why, God? Why are you doing this to me?” Sometimes, like little children having a temper fit we’ve even yelled “I hate you!” Then later, sometimes years afterwards, we realize the pit we unknowingly avoided. Yes, hind sight IS 20/20. But as for the present we still are woefully myopic.
There is the danger of saying “Long ago the Lord said…or did” tacitly implying that whatever involvement God had in our lives in the past doesn’t apply to the present. We miss the lesson of the immanence of God in our day to day lives. God’s love is not fly-by-night, fair-weather love. He has loved us since the beginning of this world. He loved us since the beginning of the whole universe. In fact, He loved us before this universe existed! “Everlasting” is how He describes His love. This means something when you consider the source! A human can tell you “I love you forever” but what does that mean? If they love you their whole lives, that’s still only seventy to eighty years. How does that add up to “forever”? And human love often fails. They grow tired of you. Their attention wanders. They are easily hurt. Offended, they walk off the playing field and they take their love with them.
God, on the other hand, is never tired. He doesn’t sleep. He never leaves. Since everything is in Him, He has nowhere to go. He’s never bored. The Scriptures tell us He’s even fascinated with the tiniest detail of your life, including the number of hairs on your head. One of the advantages of omnipresence is that God’s brain is not in one place and sending signals to another. He is fully present, aware of and thinking about every spatial point of the universe. Travel to China and you’re no farther or closer to God. As soon as the first synapse fires in your brain, He’s already there with an answer.
Go through the nature, traits and virtues of God one by one, and see how each one affects your love relationship with Him. Study the Scriptures, not just as a source of information to live your life by, but as a love letter from your best Friend. He really is your childhood friend, your high school sweetheart. He’s loved you longer and more faithfully than even you know! Now that’s what I call everlasting love!
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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