come here come here go away go away

Today we read Romans 5:6-21 in the One Year Bible. And it reminds us that Jesus came and died for our sins while we were still sinning. That's pretty amazing love.

And it reminds me of something that I learned recently about how we treat God. See, when I was in college, I noticed that my girlfriend would do this thing. She and I joked about it. It was the "come here come here come here go away go away go away" treatment. One day she wanted me to be right with her in everything she was doing, and the next moment she wanted room to breathe and some distance, then the next moment she wanted me all close to her again.

It occurred to me recently that that is exactly how we treat God. One minute we're praying, "God, I want to know you better, I want to do Your will, please help me to avoid sin and to do nothing but Your will for the rest of my life." And the next minute, we're gossiping about our neighbor, treating our family badly, neglecting our work, slacking on our prayer and Bible time, and maybe even falling into some kind of sexual sin. Which, as we know, "pushes God away" with our sin. Then we repent, and we're praying, "God, please come back and fill me and make me pure again..." And so the cycle goes.

Thankfully, we know that God does not tire of forgiving us. After all, He commands US to forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven. And for those of you who struggle with math, that doesn't mean forgive 490 times and then stop. It just means keep forgiving. If God is going to ask US fallen humans to do that, don't you think He'll forgive us that much more?

So as many times as we're like, "Go away, go away," we can always pray, "Come here, come here, come here." Thanks be to God.

Thank You, God, for forgiving us, and coming back when we've foolishly gone away.