Jeremiah 10:18b-19, “…At this time, and will cause them
distress,that they may be captured and find me. Woe is me, because of my broken heart! My wound is incurable. But I said, “Truly this is lovesickness, and I must bear it.”
This is a paraphrase of these two verses that I believe so faithfully reveals what the Scriptures are saying about the true nature of God’s love for us. At the cross, Jesus cried out these words, “I thirst.” I believe these two words are a consummation of the three words spoken in Genesis 3:9 when in the garden God cried out “Where are you!” That phrase in Genesis 3 is the DNA of all scripture. These aren’t words of condemnation, threat, or rejection, but instead, they are words of a broken and longing heart that created Man for fellowship and intimacy with God. God knew where they were geographically and physically, but He knew there was separation between Him and them, and He was grieving because He missed them. As Jesus on the cross spoke those simple words “I thirst,” God was once again revealing His lovesick heart for mankind. He was expressing His infinite thirst for love. As a forever memorial of God’s lovesick heart for you and me Jesus is forever the lamb slain, and will forever carry the open wounds in his side, head, feet, and hands.
Those verses in Jeremiah tell us that even in times of discipline when we are running from God, He initiates, or allows distress to come into our lives, not because He is angry with us, but so that we can be captured by Him and find Him. He has an incurable lovesick heart for us; and I am so grateful that He never stops pursuing me, and that I will get to worship before His open wounds throughout eternity.
