“How would you treat me if you didn’t need me?” – God

This is a question I wondered after thoughts about the heart of God and His passion for His people. He “..so loved..” the world that He “gave” His only Son.

What is it like to give up something that no one else can ever replace for the benefit of another, and have no one there to show gratitude – despite what you’ve done for them? As if what’s been done is expected because that’s what God does, that’s who He is and that’s who He will always be.

What’s it like to be in love with someone when they are indifferent with you? What’s it like to be a pursuer, a lover and a provider for someone who chooses to not love you back with the same passion, depth and intention as you give and would hope to receive. 

What’s it like to be God looking back at His people only to find the decay of His  creation withering before Him with little regard to the work that went into not only making what He’s created, but saving it so there is some one to eat Wedding Cake with?

Almost makes me wonder when you tell someone you love them, do we realize that often the response may not be matched with the same kind of love that was first mentioned? 

Does the depth of your love meet the depth of my love in my inner courts with an embrace of romance revealing to you the deepest and most sacred parts of me. Or does your love look the other way when my love is present only to leave one of us bathing in the tears of unmet expectations?

What is the world to do with the God who is the source of love and chooses to love us “so much ” that He willing to exchanged our sin and shame for the sake of not just knowing Him, but believing in Him?

“How would you treat me if you didn’t need me?”

I’ve been reading the book of Hosea and I’m now getting a strong sense of what it’s like to be in the place of a lover who loves the unloveable. To go and marry a prostitute and not just marry her, but love her. Through thick and through thin. And when you have to go and get her out of the mess she’s gotten herself into ..you show up and pay a price of reconciliation only to have her never fully comprehend the depth of love that saw her in the first place and claimed her while she was still on the street corner.

This is why I am compelled to take another step in His direction. I know even when I don’t treat Him my best, He still loves me and treats me with the same deep and unconditional love that saved me. 

Could that be because he’s the source of love or because He chooses to love me? In either case I am grateful for the outcome of being loved by Him and believing that the moments of my life that are the strongest are the moments that I realize how weak I am and how much more I really need Him. 

The question then remains, how would you treat Him if you didn’t need Him?

(Please feel free to post comments, more to come…)