Replace Your Name for Israel

Wherever you see the word Israel, replace it with your own name.

Israel, how could I give you up? My heart turns against it.... When Israel was a child I loved him, I myself taught him to walk. I took him in my arms; Yet he has not understood that I was looking after him. I led him with reins of kindness, with leading strings of love. I was like someone who lifts an infant close up against his cheek; stooping down to him I gave him his food.... How could I treat you like Admah, or deal with you like Zeboim? My heart recoils from it, my whole being trembles at the thought. I will not give reign to my fierce anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God, not man: I am the holy one in your midst and have no wish to destroy. (Hosea 11:1,3-4,8-9)

In the wilderness, too, you saw him: how the LORD carried you, as a man carries his child, all along the road you travelled on the road to this place. (Deuteronomy 1:31)

This is why I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart. I am going to give her back her vineyards and make the valley of Achor a gateway of hope. There she will respond to me as she did when she was young, as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt. (Hosea 2:14-17)

The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named my name. (Isaiah 49:1)

Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you. See I have branded you on the palms of my hands, your ramparts are always under my eye. (Isaiah 49:14-15)

In the face of all this, what is there left to say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not hesitate to give us what was most precious to Himself-gave him as a matter of fact over into our hands - can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else we need? ... I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither messenger of heaven nor monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God's whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-34,38-39)

In light of these passages, reflect on the words of Father Carey Landry's beautiful song "Only a Shadow":

My own belief in you, my Lord, is only a shadow of your faith in me, only a shadow of all that will be when we meet face-to-face.... The love I have for you, my Lord, is only a shadow of your love for me, only a shadow of all that will be when we meet face-to-face.

-Brennan Manning