--Jeremiah 2:2
Let us note that Christ delights to think upon His Church, and to
look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as
the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue
the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face
which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our
sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His
delights were with the sons of men"; His thoughts rolled onward to
the time when His elect should be born into the world; He viewed them
in the mirror of His foreknowledge. "In Thy book," He says, "all my
members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon
its pillars, He was there, and He set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time before
His incarnation, He descended to this lower earth in the similitude
of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok
(Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Josh. 5:13), and in
the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited
His people. Because His soul delighted in them, He could not rest
away from them, for His heart longed after them. Never were they
absent from His heart, for He had written their names upon His hands,
and graven them upon His side. As the breastplate containing the
names of the tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by
the high priest, so the names of Christ's elect were His most
precious jewels, and glittered on His heart. We may often forget to
meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but He never ceases to
remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness, and pray
for grace ever to bear Him in fondest remembrance. Lord, paint upon
the eyeballs of my soul the image of Thy Son.
