"Close to You!" (Grace Note #78)

 

"Close to You!" (Grace Note #78)

Jeremiah 13, adapted by Gary L. Clendenon, December 12, 2019

GOD came to me and said, “Go and buy a new pair of underwear. Put it on, next to your body beneath your clothes, then wear it for a while without washing it.” So, I bought a new pair of underwear and put it on.

Then GOD spoke to me again: “Take off the underwear you bought and have been wearing and take it straight to the Euphrates river. Then, hide the underwear in a crack between some large rocks.” So I did what GOD said.

After some time had passed, GOD said to me: “Go back to the Euphrates and get the underwear I asked you to hide there.” When I went back and dug out the underwear from the place where I’d hidden it, I found it had begun to rot. This garment that was once new and clean was now completely worthless.

Then the word of GOD came to me to drive home His point: “In the same way I will ruin the stubborn pride of Judah and Jerusalem. Instead of listening to me, they do whatever they want—even worshiping other gods! They will end up like this rotten underwear in your hands—completely worthless!”

“Just as underwear clings to a person’s waist, so did I, the Eternal One, make Israel and Judah to cling tightly to Me. They were to be My people, known by all, bringing honor and glory to My name. That was My plan for them, but they did not listen.”

MORAL OF THE STORY: The Infinite, All-powerful GOD wants to be “Close to You”*. In fact, so close that GOD gave Jeremiah this very intimate, personal parable to visually illustrate just how close! There is nothing closer to us than our underwear, and this story is proof that GOD wants us to remember every morning when we put on our underwear—and snap them snug—that that’s just how close GOD wants to be with us!

*I’m pretty sure that that’s GOD singing to us through Karen Carpenter.  (Click Here for the Carpenters "Close to You")