What were we thinking?

Scripture Verses that Caught my Attention today: Ezekiel 16:30 How sick is your heart, says the Lord GOD, that you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen whore;

AND Ezekiel 16:60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.

Observation: Ezekiel 15 and 16 and even 17 (which I accidentally read today as well) are full of very powerful and intimately disturbing imagery. Also, the coarseness of the language is almost startling, with the use of the words “whore” and “whoring” repeatedly spewing forth as if from the mouth of a stereotypical drunken and cussing sailor. And yet there is a redeeming thread that is still woven through it all.

Application: God’s question “How sick is your heart?” brings to mind the exclamatory question we often rhetorically ask of ourselves, “What was I thinking!” We look back at a moment (or even a long period!) of questionable judgment and wonder how in the world we could have ever gotten to that point. We wonder how we could have been so deluded, so short-sighted, so depressed, so full of ourselves, so whatever!

Some of these things that now embarrass us are just because we, like most everyone else, were simply caught up in the time. We may cringe at the sight of some of the clothes we wore, for example, but they were just a reflection the time periods and culture in which we lived.
Other things, however, may go much deeper. We may wonder how we could have ‘fallen’ for someone who later turned out to be quite different than we had hoped. Or we may have lavished our energies upon some ideal or pursuit that ultimately led only to disappointment and regret.

At such times of realization, where can we turn? More specifically, to whom can we turn?

Answer? To the Almighty One who rescued us from the beginning and for some reason still loves us even now.

Prayer: Dear Lord, sometimes you must be wondering what in the world I was thinking. Then again, you already know…and love me regardless. Help be to take such incredible grace to heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Scripture readings today included: Ezekiel 15-16, Psalm 70, Revelation 6)