Intense Desire

I looked up the word “passion” in the dictionary.  The definition is: having an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.  The reason I looked up the official meaning of the word is because of a verse I came across this week that touched something deep within me.  It’s found in Exodus 34:14, “God is passionate about His relationship with you.”  When we take time to meditate upon these words, the depth and height of its meaning is sheer ecstasy.

God so loves each one of us that He will do whatever it takes to reveal that love to us.  We may see His love through nature, contemplating the making of a tree or how a bird floats with outstretched wing in the sky.  Sometimes we catch a glimpse of the heights of His love when we gaze upon the ultrasound of a child, toes and fingers forming, eyes, nose and mouth all there.  At other times, as we call upon God to quieten the anguish of our hearts and the fury of our thoughts when turmoil attempts to choke to death all hope and peace, we begin to understand the passion of our Father.

You see, His love is so vast and pure that He will use all of life, the good and the terrible, to bring us to a place where we look up and find the resources to get us through each day.  We read in Ephesians 1:3 that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms…” In other words, He has given us a treasure chest filled with everything to get us through anything, and all because He is passionate about us.  He knows when we look up to Him, we will find the fingers of His love ready to wipe away all tears.  We will find a trove of His abundance to fill us with peace in the midst of grief, or hope in times of despair, or guidance when we know we are lost and can’t find the way for today, which makes tomorrow a formidable thought.  When we look up to Him, we find courage to endure the unfathomable and strength to reach out and lend a hand to another even when our own hearts are breaking.  As we begin to soak in the passion of God’s love for us, we become overwhelmed with fresh understanding of His intense desire for everything good to come out of everything bad in our lives.

There is no sweeter hope than for one to look up, discover His love, take hold of His hand, and dare to walk with Him into the darkness, for it is then that we are swathed in the light of His passion for us.