From the Veil

I've seen it. Just a glimpse of glory. 

"Redemption of Creation" is what they called it. I'm creation and this sure feels like my redemption. 

It was a dance. They illustrated creation, God the Artist in action. Then the moment when God breathed life into man. The fall. Darkness breaks and death falls. 

But then, God steps down from the throne and puts on sin. Temptation flocks the Savior as it attacked us, but He resists where we failed. He defeats death, the veil is torn, we are saved. 

Then we see Adam, our first representative, the one who fell. He sees sin broken, knows all he's done, and looks into the face of his Creator with doubt. How could this be?

Then the Creator- the one who crafted him, disciplined him, bought him, pursued him, loved him relentlessly-  this Creator lifts the sin from his shoulders and throws it away, pulling man back into the eternally open, always faithful arms of love. 

Adam wept, and so did I. 

I am Adam. We all are. Sin has weighed down our shoulders. We've been afflicted, cursed by that moment when we pushed away our Creator in favor of emptiness. Jeremiah describes it as changing glory for that which doesn't profit, making broken cisterns for ourselves that hold no water. We said, "It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go" (Jeremiah 2:25).

We left our Father and pursued things that destroyed us. 

And sometimes we know we've been bought but we still only see that veil- the veil already torn- and know it's our fault it was there in the first place. We feel as if there's no place for us. We're too dirty, too broken, and the last one to go back to is the One we've offended. 

But this story has nothing to do with us. 

Because while we were running, He was pursuing. He fought for us, to make us all we could never be. He found us as criminals and made us children. And He stands before us every  moment and pleads that we would come home because He is always home. He sends the call, "Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness" (Jer. 3:22).

When we do not love, He is love.
We we are faithless, He is faithful. 
When we are ashamed, He sees us.
When we are filthy, He makes us clean. 

We are crafted, woven in His image. He put His very likeness in us, He paid so much for us, and He will not abandon us now. 

For He is our God, and we are His people. When we feel we don't belong, we belong to Him.

"And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"  (Hosea 2:19-20, 23)