Our God is so completely involved with us. Yes, and more than involved, intimately acquainted with every detail of our lives. He knows us whether we are even willing to know Him. He places His heart on the line continually to be bruised by our ignorance and disregard of Him. This He does all the while leaving reminders of His passion-filled thoughts of us.

The earth is filled with His notes of love. He has placed them all around us, His deepest longing in signs of remembrance. A world full of events and tangibles calls us continually into deep relationship with Him. "Come, Come away my beloved," His voice sings through all nature. The descent of an autumn leaf, the crash of the tumultuous wave, the silence of the night air, the early morning peek of the sun's face. They all have His call of remembrance concealed in their essence. We would have to strongly resist such a call for intimacy.

Nature is not the only crier of the beckoning sigh of God. No, our tragedy and terrors beckon us to come. The near miss of that tractor trailer, the diagnosis of the cancerous spot. All speak loudly, "Come Away my beloved, Come Away."

William Law said, "Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Savior. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it, and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest faith in and fullest resignation to God."

And I believe that each of these, as William Law says, is an opportunity to enter into fuller fellowship with our Savior but additionally a call of a longing Lord for our intimacy. A personal Hand-crafted invitation and call to step deeper behind the veil. Not a God of miserly farce but a beaming, exuberant Jesus who groans
"Come away, Oh Come Away my beloved."

In the Worship Bible's introduction to Ruth it reads, "In Ruth we see that there are no "mere coincidences" in the lives of God's people; His fingerprints can be found on even the most seemingly trivial events."

Every imprint of His finger is a statement left behind for us to know His zealous passion to get to us. Every one. Everything is a love note beckoning us to read the intent of God's heart.
 

The Jewish traditions, feasts, elements of worship and laws of holiness - all laid down by God - were calls of a beckoning Lord, "Come Away my beloved."

You can't look at the feasts, at the prayers at any of those aspects as "IT".
The Word is full of pleas of our God. "Do this in remembrance of Me." Pray thus, "Our Father who art in heaven..." These are all direct and audibly heard calls to remember. Remember what, a good prayer? No. A thank filled offering of bread and wine? No. The awesome price He paid? Not exactly. These are reverberating echoes of a yearning love-sick Lord, pleading with all humanity,
"Come away my beloved."
 

To go awry is to take the reverberation of the echo and presume that we have met Him who called. You would never worship the echo that came through the canyon. You would climb the mountain and find the one who sent the beckoning voice of "I love you." The echo is only the sound wave of the Bridegroom's heart. To stop at the symbol is like stopping at the wave of the sound and never knowing the person who made it. It's like worshiping the invitation and never going to the party.
 

The thumb prints of His passion are left everywhere, addressed to you by name and pressed into all your life. Those love notes magnify your hunger and thirst, your need for love that had been there all along. You get one of these love notes and you are filled with a desperation to know this One who loves you so. It captures your whole being and becomes a madness.

You found the note and read it and now you must have the Author. Sometimes you wish you had never read the note but it is branded in your soul and the promise of it drives you on a pursuit you can neither resist nor quit.

    The note reads, "Come away, my beloved."

Copyright ©  John Enslow