Friday 20 December - “I have loved you with an everlasting love”

Readings

Jeremiah 31:1-17, Hosea 11:1-11, John 15:1-17 and Romans 5:1-11

 

‘I have loved you with an everlasting love;  I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. 

Jeremiah 31: 3

When Israel was a child, I loved him,  and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them the arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

Hosea 11: 1-4

Reflection

In Jeremiah 31 we find a rich stream of images each carrying great power. Partly it illuminates the picture of God’s people  suffering, scattered over vast areas of the middle east to the north part of Palestine.

‘Rachel at Ramah’  (v15-17) refers to a double burden of grief; Jacob’s wife died in childbirth and Ramah, seen to be the  traditional site for her tomb. (Ramah is also the place where people in Judah headed to before they departed to Babylon 586BC). Rachel’s death cries are heard again as God’s people will surely now perish?

Yet Jeremiah’s imagery turns to ‘hope’. Their plight will be reversed. Jeremiah

envisages God once again leading Israel out of exile and there will be dancing and joy. All will be well.  God will shower the restored people with blessings, all made beautiful in his sight.

There is hope, God provides it. God is faithful, full of love and goodness.

Prayer

Lord, forgive me when I doubt your voice. Forgive me for the moments when I allow the world to speak so loudly that I cannot hear the tenderness of your whisper.

Help me to be attentive to your voice, your word, your calling upon my life that I too may respond like Mary and Joseph and be obedient. Amen