"Swept Away"

 "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." (S.O.S. 4:9)

  To be frank, it is and has been my understanding that the parable of the buried treasure and the pearl of great price, is not about you and me, as if we have found something that is so valuable we sell all to purchase it; but that it is about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has given all that He had, even His life, to purchase something that "ravished" His heart, becoming the most important and valuable thing in His heart. Yes, doing the Father's will was of the utmost importance, but in the bigger picture, as the One that came down from heaven, He was the merchant that traveled somewhere; thankfully and wonderfully, He came to set the captive free! 

  That said, I have also concluded that this same principle is what must happen in us; that the buried treasure and the pearl of great price found, is none other than God's love; it is us realizing that He loves us so so much, He would give anything to save us from the power of sin and death. Something extraordinary is what needs to happen, as we come to the realization that God's love has no bounds; that His forgiveness comes with no other precept or obligation, other than the fact that we ask Him for it, and that we receive whole heartedly. Selling all that we have does not require us to give up all of worldly possessions; not like Jesus Christ gave up His rightful position in heaven to surrender His life on the cross; but it does require us to place no other god or idol between us and the God that loves us.

  I am not worthy of that claim, as much as I would love to make that my legacy, or that the message I reclaimed upon my death, was how much I was so faithful and dedicated to the Lord. Keeping idols from being built in my life was usually not the things I was focused upon, because it seemed that they needed to be torn down repeatedly; and at times, with great regret and misery. 

  Regardless, no matter how much we might mess up or fall, He is always right there with open arms! Seriously! With arms stretched out, He never stops loving us! There is nothing that is even close to the value of that; absolutely nothing can even come close to the love of God and how much He cares for us, His children! Yes, that is what we must realize, above all else; that He has chosen us to be His children; that He has adopted us, long before we were even a speck in our mother's eye, He already knew us...

"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But is through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God and children of God." (Romans 8:12-14) NLT