It’s amazing to me how far we can get off track, how far we will wander and the depth of the crazy things we’ll do and chase after while we’re trying to do things “our” way.

Jeremiah 2:11b  ‘But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O Heavens and shudder with great horror’, declares the Lord”

God knows the good, beautiful, amazing and perfect things He has for us… it’s incomprehensible that someone would knowingly reject this kind of love.  And yet we do~

We exchange it for money, popularity, addiction, pretty things that make us feel good temporarily, fame, stature, comfort, so-called adventure.  We run from disciple meant to protect and mold thinking a gruel, demanding God has just “judged” me and in turn equate that with the acts of a dictator and not a loving God who desires freedom, peace, security and good things for us.  The BEST things for us.

What is even more amazing to me is the crazy love God still has for us even when we’ve exchanged our Glory to chase after empty pleasures~  ‘How gladly I would treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’  Jeremiah 3:19

In my life, I have exchanged my Glory for escape, “love”, acceptance and thrill, fun and downright selfishness, to name just a few.  The ironic thing is that all those things left me empty, wanting more and feeling very lonely.  When I strike out to “find myself” or do things my way and reject the most incredible relationship ever offered to me, I feel it so deep that my body aches from the separation.

A number of years ago after a bitter divorce and a miracle second marriage, which involved a move to a new state I experienced the pain and anguish that separation, can create.  After only four months in our new state my youngest daughter decided she wanted to move back to the state where her friends and father lived.  For some reason when you’re involved in a divorce you feel obligated to agree to things you typically wouldn’t.  Hindsight is always clearer isn’t it?

Within two weeks my husband and I were standing at the gate (obviously this was prior to 9-11) with our daughter crying shamelessly as we said our good-byes.  Yes, all of us were crying.  We all knew this wasn’t what we wanted and yet, we all followed through with it.  My heart was broken, I felt like I was missing half of my body, as though I had severed an arm and a leg.  Amputees will tell you that after the loss of a limb; they continue to feel like that limb is still there.  I knew I still had her, but she was absent.  I wanted (and still do) the best things for her, the safest life, the most security and love she deserved and I knew the environment she was entering was not that kind of place.

God aches for us when we’re far away from Him.  It is baffling and curious, the above verse says appalling, why we would exchange our Glory for emptiness, danger, separation and ultimate death when He offers every good thing to us.  I’m so incredibly thankful for His intense love for us, so much so that He sent His Son in exchange for me.  As hard and as painful as it must have been to send His Son off into a world that offered rejection and distain, it is more painful for Him to continue to be separated from us.  His love for us is so deep that He was willing to send His Son out in exchange for us.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”  Romans 5:8