Come
by Malcolm Wood
The vocabulary of our nearly two year old granddaughter seems to expand daily. One of her latest words is ‘come’, which she uses whenever she wants to show you some new discovery of the world she’s exploring, or she requires help with a toy, or when she needs an audience to watch her latest activity. Whatever the cause, Abigail has found that by using the word ‘come’, in the majority of cases it works – someone joins her in her pursuit!
The dictionary definition of ‘come’ is: ‘to move or travel towards the speaker or with the speaker’. The word ‘come’ is regularly used in everyday life, and expresses an invitation by the speaker or writer for another to join them.
There’s much in the Bible which demonstrates God’s Father-heart and His desire for His people to draw closer to him. There are many illustrations of individuals, families and nations who are invited in one way or another to come into a closer relationship with Him. In fact God’s desire for mankind to come to Him is so strong that through the ages He sent messenger after messenger with the invitation ‘to come’, or ‘come back’ to him. As we know, this eventually culminated in God sending Jesus to show how much He did really love us and wanted us with Him.
The cry of the prophets of old reveal God’s heart for all, and it remains the same today. “My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts” (Jeremiah 3:22). “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). ‘So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him’ (Hosea 12:6).
The idea of making that move closer to God is carried through into the New Testament, when in Hebrews we read ‘So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most’ (Hebrews 4:16).
Through His death on Calvary, Jesus made it possible for us to respond to God’s open invitation to come to Him and enjoy the blessing of a closer relationship with Father God. Jesus made this possibility quite clear when He said ‘No one can come to the father except through me’ John 14:6.
Perhaps our daily prayer should be in the words of the song by Geoffrey Bullock -
Lord I come to you
Let my heart be changed, renewed
Flowing from the grace
That I’ve found in you
Lord I`ve come to know
The weaknesses I see in me
Will be stripped away
By the power of your love.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for inviting me to come to You. Thank You for making it possible for me to do so, and help me to draw closer to You every day. Amen.
Malcolm Wood and his wife Anna became part of the Ellel family as House Managers at Ellel Grange in 1990. Since then they have been involved with many aspects of the developing Ministry. From 2001 until 2015 they were Directors of Ellel Scotland where they hosted several International Schools and Operation Blairmore and helped pioneer the exciting Creative Inspiration Weeks. They have three sons.
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