With age old love I have loved you;
so I have kept my mercy toward you.
Again I will build you, and you shall stay built, virgin Israel;
Carrying your festive tambourines,
you shall go forth dancing with merrymakers.
Jeremiah 31:3-4 (NAB)
This phrase “age old love” is unique to the New American Bible version of this scripture, compared to most other versions which say “everlasting love”. Both are beautiful phrases expressed by God to His people, but the phrase “age old love” reminds us of the love that lasts through all of life’s sorrows and challenges. It sounds like the love of partners who grew old together and remained united over the years.
God also tells His people “I will build you up and you will stay built.” He loves us enough to find out what builds us up. He builds us up by turning our mourning into joy, and helps us to rejoice again, after a time of great sorrow. (Jeremiah 31:13)
He sees us as individuals according to our personal likes or dislikes. God seeks the heart and interests of His beloved. It says in the love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, that
“love seeks not its own.”
God showed us that He seeks our interests by example of the entire life of Jesus, and He teaches us to love others the way He loves us.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a lady in my Zumba class a few weeks ago. Zumba is an exercise of dance steps, done to various types of Latin music.
She shared her personal story with me one day before class started. She has always loved all types of dance, and attended Zumba classes very regularly throughout the years. Then her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
As he became progressively worse, she was so busy bringing him to and from medical appointments and caring for him in his illness, that she stopped dancing, having no time to attend classes anymore. Eventually, the cancer progressed to the point of placing him in hospice.
She was so sad and emotionally drained at that point, that she said to him, “I’ll never dance again.” Before he died, he looked at her and made her promise him that she would never stop dancing, and she hasn’t stopped since.
She is now eighty plus years old and she never misses a Zumba class. She dances with more energy and enthusiasm than all those who are younger than her in the class.
Her loving husband’s last words to her came out of an “age old love”between them. Love led him to seek her best interests, even on his death bed, hoping that she would later have her mourning turned to joy. He knew what dancing meant to his wife, which is why he made her promise that she would never stop dancing.
We are the church, the bride of Christ, and He has also loved us through the years, with an age old love. Each of us has had a long partnership with Jesus through many sorrows and challenges, over the years.
His selfless love and faithfulness to us inspires our praise either by singing, playing an instrument, or through dance. He wants us to find our niche for the best way to express our worship and praise. Singing and playing instruments are beautiful forms of worship, but dancing is equally a form of worship, though not usually seen in churches.
Praise enables us to leave our anxieties and inhibitions behind, and enjoy the pure freedom of praising God through music, song or dance. The prophet Jeremiah told the people to go forth and dance for the Lord. David worshipped in all three forms. He wrote and sang songs, played a harp and worshipped the Lord by dancing.
Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to keep finding their joy given by the Holy Spirit, even in the midst of severe affliction and suffering.
(1 Thessalonians 1:6)
Whatever we are going through, we have to find our joy and the Holy Spirit will show us what fits best for each of us. Our joy is restored when we worship and praise the Lord.
The Holy Spirit knows how we can best respond to the age old love and mercy that the Lord has shown us throughout the years.
Lord, thank you for loving us with an age old love. Teach us to love others as you have loved us, and to find our joy through our own unique form of worship and praise. Amen