You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. –Jeremiah 29:13, NIV
Even though they got houses, jobs, plantations and weddings, they could never forget those things they have lost. They could only imagine walking to the Temple in Jerusalem, having a good time at the Jordan River, and tasting the sweet wines of Galilee. Distance meant separation: and for a while, they felt separated from God.
They could sing their songs, but Babylonians only wanted entertainment. They could make their altars, but people only though that they were crazy. They were treated like free people, but their own hearts judged them as slaves. Slaves of pain. Slaves of torture. Slaves of misery. Slaves of their own sin.
A psalmist said, “How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill (Psalm 137:4 & 5).” It wasn’t the same without their beloved Israel. It wasn’t the same without their God. Every sunshine they thought as their first one as free people.
For many today, distance proves to be a killer. Separated from everything, everyone they know, especially on such a special day like Thanksgiving Day… All their hopes up, waiting, longing to return… Worried, expectant… Some don’t even realize that they have Someone greater on their side.
It takes time to realize that God can cover every distance, every thought, every dream. On a day like today, many people are serving their nation somewhere else. Someone must be sleeping those little few hours to attend thousands of manic shoppers for Black Friday. Someone must be grieving for a person they lost –now, yesterday, or ever. But God is with them, hugging them, giving them the hope they need.
Someone said on Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” But God says, “If you seek Me, I will come.”
Happy Thanksgiving!