Do you know how much God wants a relationship with you?
God has always wanted nothing more than a close, intimate relationship with humankind. When, in the Book of Exodus, Moses descends with the tablets of the covenant written by God, only to find that the people have begun to worship a golden calf, it is not surprising that he erupts in anger, throwing down the tablets and and burning the calf. But Moses then returns to the mountain, where God restates his covenant with the people: The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity. It is a covenant that will know further iterations throughout salvation history. Much later, in the Book of Daniel, when Azariah (whom we also know as Abednego) prays to God from within the fiery furnace, Blessed is your holy and glorious name, he is confident in his cohort’s strong relationship with the Lord, the God of our fathers, who is willing to look into the depths upon God’s people. Azariah knows that God delivers those who are faithful; he is confident that God will come to their aid, and celebrates the relationship that is theirs.
But it is only when God sends his only Son, Jesus, into the world that all past covenants are fulfilled once and for all. John's Gospel tells us that God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, first in the Incarnation, then as a sacrifice on the cross, that the world might be saved by him; Jesus, in turn, opens up access for us to his Father, thus cementing the relationship God has long sought in the possibility of our perfect union with him, nothing short of eternal life. The cement of that relationship is the love between the Father and the Son, which takes the form of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In his second letter to the Corinthian community, Paul wishes upon them the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – where grace is our experience of the Lord, love is his gift, and fellowship draws us together into relationship with them all. Embracing that grace, love, and fellowship, the Corinthians can greet one another with a holy kiss, living in peace and rejoicing in their renewed and most intimate relationship with the Lord and with each other. It is nothing short of this relationship that the God of love and peace seeks with us as well, that he might receive us forever as his own. Will you say yes?
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
Great insights
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