On the 15th day of Christmas my true love gave to me tears over my wayward soul (Lamentations 1:1).
I am a planner. I like to know well in advance if someone wants me to attend an event. I like to take inventory so I can properly plan my event. And I like to already know who is ready to receive me in the event that I don’t have time to plan in advance. Nevertheless, it’s all planning, anticipating that things will go well, the people will come because you have invited them. You don’t have to be an event planner to know that rarely will everyone you invite will show up, no matter how timely your organizing is. But have you ever experienced an entire no show? This may be the reason Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He cried over the children of Israel not showing up to God’s invitation to holiness and allowing Him to care for their every need:
Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God.
“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 3:20-22).
God cried over and out to the Israelites so they would return to Him, and they said they would, but they were unfaithful and caused Jerusalem to come to ruin.
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave (Lamentations 1:1).
Jeremiah is a type of Christ, a prophet who also wept over Jerusalem and her inhabitants:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).
This weeping is a weeping for all wayward folks who claim Jesus Christ as our very own. Jesus Christ has an open invitation, planned well in advance, before time began, to come to Him so that our lives will go well. He invited us to receive Him as Savior so we spend life after death with Him, but until then He invites us to make Him Lord of our lives. We can, in our strong black woman strength, be our own lords, but God continues to bid us to come to Him. With Him is guaranteed protection, provision, and peace. Jesus Christ invites us to this and so much more. Don’t let Him weep over your waywardness. He has already planned to take care of you, no matter what the issue. Stop thinking, “I got this,” and let God take you under His wings.
Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith