Jacob beseeches us in chapter 6, verse 5 to " repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts."
One of the meanings of cleave is "hang on tight". That's not a dictionary definition, but that's how I see it. And I love the image that we're going to hang on tight to the Lord as he hangs on tight to us.
When Faralee and Charlie first returned from their year in Bolivia, Lydia and Owen gave us hugs every time they visited. But their hugs were more like we were doing the hugging and they were being hugged. They would stand like a stiff doll while we wrapped our arms around them and hugged their stiff bodies. But I've taught them that hugging goes both ways. I hug them while they hug me back. Now they have a contest to see who can hug the tightest, and they try to squeeze the stuffins out of us. They love it if I make groaning sounds and look like I'm going to pass out.
I kind of think sometimes we see God like Lydia and Owen were when they returned from Bolivia. We see ourselves as holding onto Him with all of our might, while He kindly tolerates us there. But this scripture tells us that He is cleaving to us also. I see Him as hanging onto us tightly, sheltering, comforting, loving, cheering for us. The dictionary says it means "to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly". That's what we need to do with the Lord because that's what He does with us.
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Nice comments. I also think that some people (many people) are more like Lydia and Owen used to be: God is trying so hard to hold them tight in an embrace and they stand stiffly or even walk away and refuse the embrace. He is always ready to accept us into His arms; we just need to be willing to receive that embrace and then go to the next step - get to the point where we long to hug Him back.
ReplyDeleteSo true.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful analogy. We need to be clinging and know that he is squeezing just as hard. That knowledge comes with the powerful experiences we have with the Holy Ghost who testifies to us of our being tightly embraced, loved and protected by God.
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