HE LONGS FOR US II

Before we go to today's post, I must first offer my sincere apologies for the drought of posts recently, been busy. Please forgive me. Now that we are through with that, let's go to the post. I will be continuing my series on my wife's trip and the things i was taught through it. I wrote them during that time period, I just couldn't get to post them. As a result, I don't intend to change the tone and tense of the post:

In the last post, we explored how God had a plan to be in close fellowship with us forever and how we abandoned that fellowship to strike out on our own. We saw how God missed us and went to great length to get us back through his Son Jesus.

Like I said in my last post, the parable of me missing my wife illuminated the Gospel to me in two dimensions; first is before the Cross, which we have dealt with, second is after the cross which I intend to write about today. You might be wondering, since the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in him, and the fullness of the God head dwells in us through the Spirit, how can we say that God misses us again or he longs to see us again? Well, there are two sides to my post today: He wants to see us physically and we want to see him physically

There is a passage in Paul Young’s book “The Shack” where Mackenzie the protagonist of the Novel meets with the Trinity for the first time. As he is about to knock on the door, it is opened by Papa (the character representing the Father) who upon seeing him gives him the biggest bear hug, he is lifted from the ground and kissed all over the place. His defenses are melted immediately, this has never happened to him before and tears start streaming from his eyes. Ultimately this is something every heart longs for; to be hugged, accepted and welcome by God. We seek it from every other person, every thrill, every Job, every good deed we do in ministry, every stride we take, but the truth is that we are seeking that these things fill a hole only God can fill. And he is willing to fill it, if we let him. I believe our hearts are longing for that bear hug from Papa, or more accurately we are wrestling against it in our ignorance and seeking it from others. However, not only do I accept the Holy Spirit’s agency in giving me this hug, I can’t wait to see him physically. I can’t wait till he returns and transforms my mortal body to the resurrected form and to see him. To touch my Lord and to see him hug me with tears in his eyes and mine as he says “welcome home my brother”. It is not the physical appearance of Heavens that creates a longing in my heart any longer but the person of Jesus himself

In the same vein, I believe the same for God himself. He has made his home in us and he finds rest in our bodies. But we are still told that Jesus will return, that he will split the sky and call us up to where he is (1 Thess. 4:16-18). If he were satisfied with the present state of things between us, he wouldn’t do that. He wants to see us and feel us; to eat and drink with us (remember God has become a man in the person of our Lord Jesus). I believe even though the Holy Spirit gives him something more than a digital impression of his presence, he still longs to return to us and feel us with his physical hands, see us with his physical eyes and speak to us one on one. We are his bride and we take his breath away.

So we can pray like the early Church prayed Maranatha, come Lord Jesus come