Christianity is not first and foremost a bunch or rules, faith is not simply believing a set of statements about God and His nature. No, Christianity is in its essence, a love affair, a great romance with our passionate, loving God. Christianity is the story of Jesus leaving the comfort and perfection of heaven for our sakes, coming down into our mess, affecting a rescue and restoration operation and then taking us for His bride. It is the truth behind the Cinderella story that makes is so appealing. It is a story of spiritual rags to spiritual riches. It is all about Him and what He has done, and our response to it all.
Its a little weird that we men are also His bride, but it is of course a picture of the tenderness of His love rather than a literal reality. The point is that authentic Christianity is all about a love relationship with the God who became one of us in order we might make for Himself a people of His own. Jesus puts it this way “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). The essence of “life in all its fullness” (John 10:10) is to be in ongoing loving relationship with the God who saves.
One of the most telling New Testament pictures of this relationship we can have with God, is that of marriage. Paul instructs husbands in Ephesians 5:25 to “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Then in verse 32 he says that this is a great mystery, but that he speaks concerning Christ and the church. So then faithful intimate marriage is intended to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and His Church. Since this is the case, we can learn something about what God intends in our relationship with Him from a functional marriage. First and foremost this involves communication. Perhaps one of the best description of prayer is that it is conversation with God. In a functional relationship the couple will talk to each other, and in particular about the important things the things that matter to each other. It is a two way conversation, they will both speak and they both will listen, and this listening will not just be hearing words. A friend of mine described his marriage as “soul touch”. It was his picture of the love, trust and intimacy and reality in their relationship.
For some reason this idea of God communicating with us, is foreign to some. But it is very Biblical. In a September post “You hear from God? And fairies too right?” I explore this, where Jesus talks about His sheep (those who belong to Him) hearing His voice. But there are also many other places where not just speaking, but a deep intimacy are indicated. In the 23rd Psalm we read “You make me lie down in green pastures, you restore my soul" and "Your rod and staff they comfort me”. Peter tells us to cast all our care on Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). In the Isaiah passage that heads up this series of posts we read about God's comfort and consolation, and how He will even bring joy out of ashes. Ashes of course speak of something completely destroyed, but everything is fixable in God. I told earlier in a January post (Don't get mad, get even and poison yourself and those you love) of Corrie Ten-Boon and her family interred in a German death camp during the second world war. She writes “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still”.
In fact is it the difficult times that God uses most to draw us close to Himself. Paul knew of this when he wrote Romans 8:28 “ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”. He spoke from experience. King David would write “When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me” (Psalm 27:10). Such things do not happen without tangible tender love and care. Isaiah paints the picture of Him carrying us as young in his bosom (Isaiah 40:11).
We will need to say more about the part we play in allowing Him to draw us close to Himself in our sufferings. In the meantime, my prayer for you is that you may in all your troubles, experience the both the comfort of God who is the source of God of all comfort, and the presence of God whose very essence is love. He is calling you and I to come close (Matthew 11:28,29).
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