Jeremiah 31:3-4

"The LORD appeared to us in the past saying,
'I have loved you with an everlasting love,
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

I will build you up again,
And you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.
Again you will take up your tambourines
And go out to dance with the joyful."

I think this passage is underlined in every Bible I own. God pointed me to this passage three years ago after the toughest months of my life thus far; and I have clung to it as a promise from Him.

Clearly in this passage, God is addressing His beloved nation of Israel; His chosen people. However, in reading on through the Bible, I don't think it's too far of a stretch to say that He is talking to me, or us. In the New Testament, with Jesus' death and resurrection, we, those of us who believe, find that we are His chosen people. Israel was His instrument to reach out to the Gentiles with His love, thereby uniting us into one Body. With this "technicality" out of the way, let us move on...

I marvel at the fact He doesn't end it with, "I have loved you." Instead, God goes on to say that it is with an everlasting love...everlasting - as in, it will not ever end. It doesn't matter what happens or how ugly I become (inside and out!), His love will never run dry. And indeed, He did draw me to Him with a loving-kindness that I can still recall to this day. This is what gets me, He has done all the work...He drew me in, He has loved me...forever. In an ever changing world where the question marks in life loom large, this is a gift; to know that I am loved beyond my own comprehension.

With that foundation laid, the passage becomes even more beautiful. He will build me up and I will be rebuilt. To need rebuilding means there must have been a tearing down that occurred. We all have those times in our lives...some more blatant than others. God allows these times of tearing down so that He can strip us of all the nasty stuff and rebuild us to reflect Him more.

I love that He says, "O Virgin Israel". Israel, as clearly seen in the writings of some of the other prophets, was not a virgin - she had willingly stepped over the line regarding other gods, thereby committing adultery with God. How many times have I screwed up or walked away from God, only to return to Him and find that I a covered by the blood of His Son and God sees me as being white as snow?

Then comes probably one of my very favorite images - taking up a tambourine and going out and dancing with the joyful. After a time of tearing down will come the rebuilding. The rebuilding can be just as painful as we learn to live and function differently than we did before; change is always hard. We find ourselves thinking and seeing things through a completely different lens than we once did. But He will, through this process, establish our joy once again. And our joy will be founded in Him as He hands us a tambourine and says, "Go, dance with the joyful!" And I can only imagine that He wouldn't stop walking with us at that point...He carries us through the tearing down process and stays by our side as He builds us up...surely He then goes out to dance with us.