Divine Heartbreak

“How gladly would I treat you like my children… I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 3:19-20 (NIV)

Vulnerability and divinity. Hurt and the Most High. Grief and the great I AM.

For those of us inundated by conceptions of God’s uber-machismo, these pairings are quite disturbing. The dominant strands of masculine Christianity in our society proclaim the impenetrable majesty of the Almighty, almost exclusively.

Perhaps people mired in the mix of their own hurts and frustrations feel the need to look to a God who reigns without encumbrance above all of it.

Yet, according to God’s own self-disclosure, heartbreak is not alien to the divine. God not only comforts and strengthens us in our grief, God has grief of God’s own.

The heart of God breaks and aches over the unfaithfulness of God’s loved ones, the way the heart of a lover breaks and aches over the unfaithfulness of a promiscuous spouse. Our resolute ingratitude, our selfish devotions, our vain obsessions are among the things that tear at the very heart of God.

As we look to God to comfort our grief-stricken hearts and to wipe away our mournful tears, we should remember that God has a broken heart as well – a heart broken by our reckless infidelity.  

Let’s do all we can to rectify and remove the hurt in God’s heart. 

The gospel according to Stevie Wonder goes like this:

Love’s in need of love today 

Don’t delay, send yours in right away 

Hate’s goin round breaking many hearts 

Stop it, please, before it’s gone too far 

Love’s in need of love today 

Prayer
Great Comforter, help us as we come to comfort you. Amen.