Читать книгу Hear the Ancient Wisdom - Charles Ringma - Страница 74

March 6

The Ever-Seeking God

The good news of the biblical story is not that we find God through our own efforts, but that God seeks us out and wins us over to seek his face. The welcoming God has drawn us into his presence.

God created the world and humanity out of love and joy and for the purpose of relationship and friendship. And it is clear from the biblical story that this God seeks us with passion and persistence. God is ever the Hound of Heaven.

St. Augustine made this confession, “I sighed, and thou didst hear me. I vacillated, and thou guided me. I roamed the broad way of the world, and thou didst not desert me.”65 Thus even in Augustine’s waywardness God was already at work.

All of this was true before this church father came to faith in the

living God. Augustine knew God was already with him and was

already somehow present in his life. How much more then is this true when one has surrendered in faith to this seeking God. All the more, this God will then sustain us and draw us into his presence.

God the Father seeks us out and calls us by name. God the Son goes looking for us and brings us home to his healing arms. God the Spirit broods over us and with renewing breath wings us on our way into the welcoming presence of God and into service in our world.

Reflection

The God who seeks me out truly identifies me, marks me for God’s

purposes, and shapes my very identity.