Simply because he loves me... a thread

This week my husband and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. In those years we have faced many challenges and received some amazing blessings. My husband is amazing in so many ways, and though he has been known to surprise me with a romantic gesture, including painting my portrait and building me a bespoke bench on my porch to name a couple, he is not the most romantic of men, which I now accept and simply buy my own flowers!! 

A few days ago I was blown away by a grand romantic gesture, not from my husband, but by God! 

At the beginning of the year I began the bible recap, a chronological bible reading in a year plan. Some days have been great and i’ve learned a lot about God, not only through the readings, but also through the accompanying podcast. However at the moment we are finishing the book of Exodus and are preparing to begin Leviticus. Some of the readings have been a little dry, to say the least! I had just been reading about the priestly garments that were made in Exodus 28, and while it was impressive that they had achieved this in the wilderness, I struggled to see how it related to me, here, thousands of years later. 

Towards the end of the week we attended a spiritual day for ministers in The Salvation Army from the North West of England. We were running really late to get there, I mean and hour late! The traffic was awful and Paul and I had words while trying to find a parking space! I felt anything but spiritual when I settled myself into the day. However, God showed his power and love to me in such a way it knocked me off my feet. 

Our divisional leaders were talking about the book of Ruth and our attention was drawn to a verse that I had never noticed before. Ruth 2:12 says: 

“May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge”

This verse brought such a beautiful picture to mind and this, coupled with Ruth’s request to to her Kinsman-redeemer Boaz in Ruth 3:9 to spread his garment over her, was stunning. 

We were challenged to “allow the garment of Yahweh to cover you.”  As I pictured Jesus’ garment of his precious blood covering me, I was reminded of that rather dry passage I had read in Exodus 28 and when I turned to it I began to see a thread woven from the beginning of scripture, throughout the word of God and through the Holy spirit into my life today. 

I looked at the robes that Aaron and the Levitical priests wore, I began to see a picture of Jesus and the love he has for us, written by God long before Jesus walked the earth. 

I was also led to a beautiful verse in Malachi 4:2, the last book in the Old Testament, which declares:

“But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat, like stall-fed calves.”

As God revealed these things to me, I became aware of how I had felt God’s covering over me. I was reminded how Boaz spreading his garment over Ruth was symbolic of a marriage proposal and how Jesus, our high priest covering us in his blood, is a marriage proposal for us, the bride od Christ. 

These images and pictures continued to dance in my heart and mind, and the more I looked to scripture the more I saw the thread of Yahweh’s covering. A couple of days later, as I prayed to God thanking him for his revelation and asking him what he wanted me to do with this picture, I felt him say… I have revealed this thread to you simply because I love you! 

Today maybe you need to feel the Love of God cover you once again. Maybe you long to feel safe and protected and want to feel him close, then ask Jesus, your high priest to cover you in his priestly robes, his blood, one more. 

And for those of us who sometimes find chunks of scripture seemingly dry and irrelevant, I would encourage you to dive in and seek God’s face, because there are pictures of Jesus everywhere. 

Wherever you are with Jesus today, search for the thread of his love in your life and as I was reminded last week, allow the garment of Yahweh to cover you.