“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…”  Ps.23:6

Have you ever pictured God running after you for the express purpose of holding you close and telling you how much He loves you? This is exactly what David is saying when he writes, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” (Ps.23:6). The word “follow” in this passage is much better translated “persecute” or “follow hard after”. The goodness and mercy of God is hunting us down daily, nipping at our heels, following hard behind us to the end of our days. The goal of this divine pursuit is to drive us straight into the outstretched arms of Him where true life and perfect love alone can be found (Rom.2:4). C.S. Lewis, who was converted out of agnosticism, describes this kind of love in his account of being pursued by God:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen(one of the colleges of Cambridge), night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelented approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not see then what is the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert on even such terms. The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?…The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation”.

Why not take a minute to just let God hold you and listen anew to how much He loves you. Then let goodness and mercy nip at your heels all day long.