Once upon a time, a boy and a girl fell in love and decided to get married. As they prepared for their wedding, the boy became increasingly enamoured by the privileged role he would soon inherit.  The girl was precious, and the honour of serving as her husband was one he never wanted to betray.

However, a most curious irony stirred him. The sadness of this girl’s past weighed heavily on him. She’d suffered the agony of rejection and bore its scars. To the boy, the pain of having your life ripped from you and trampled underfoot by one you so thoroughly gave yourself to and for was unimaginable.  Strangely, he loved the girl so much that, for her sake, he wished he never had the opportunity to do so! He wished she’d never experienced the pain she had.

Nevertheless, here they now were, and the girl’s past gave him increased reason to provide her with a better future.  He could not promise perfection, but he prayed for better. 

He prayed that what God had done for him in Christ would shape all he would be to the girl as her husband.  He was nothing except for what God had made him, and he had nothing apart from what God had given him in Christ. Both who he was and what he had were epitomised by God’s full and free acceptance of him, even with his failings.

God’s acceptance of him was extraordinary. But to know God would never reject him elevated that acceptance to a level beyond precious. It was priceless. “He will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance”. Ever. “We are his,” the boy marvelled, “Treasured by him; belonging to him; loved eternally.” In a world of pain, could there be a more unfathomably pleasant truth than this?

Taking his lead from God’s faithfulness and praying that God would fit him for the purpose, the boy’s promise to the girl was that he would not reject her, ever. “I long for you to feel safe,” he declared, “and for you to step into tomorrow knowing my deep commitment to you.”