By David ReayThursday 19 May 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Matthew 23:37-39
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. 38 And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate. 39 For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (NLT)
If you want to keep your heart intact, steer well clear of love. Giving your love to another living being, animal or human, leaves your heart vulnerable to pain. To love is to be open to the probability of hurt somewhere along the way.
Most of us take that risk. We do so for a few reasons. One is that while love can lead to heartbreak it can also lead to delight. Another is that if we refrain from loving, we don’t escape from pain itself. We merely embrace another lonely, isolated pain. And then we figure that loving others is a good thing both for us and them despite the hurt involved.
A parent with a wayward child, the spouse with a depressed partner, the pastor with a difficult congregation, the adult with a demanding aged parent—all experience the pain of loving people who don’t always give ‘warm fuzzies’ in return.
Jesus expresses something of this in our passage today. He longs for his people to come to him. He loves them with a love we can scarcely imagine. And his heart is broken when that love is not returned, when those he loves choose destruction over wholeness.
God took the great risk of creating human beings to love. He reckoned it would break his heart, but he also reckoned that love and hurt were something of a package deal.
Blessings
David Reay