What Right Have I?

I've never been the type of person who gets jealous - actually, I've always thought it a waste of emotion. But I found myself jealous tonight for the stupidest reason - thinking about it now, I can't help but to laugh. I want all the attention this person has to spare. I don't want other girls talking to him; especially those who could pose to be a threat to my happiness - though when based on this alone my happiness proves to be very fragile. However, it made me stop and think... I wondered if this is how God feels. I wondered if this is what His Word meant when it declared Him to be a "jealous God" - and that one of His very names is "Jealous". He longs for every moment of our time, not just our spare time. He wants to be the very center, the very focus of our being; yet, occasionally when we "have time" we open His Word and speed through the 23rd Psalm or quickly skim over the book of Jude. We're too busy to spend time with Him because we're so focused on the unimportant, tangible things this world offers. And God gets jealous... Jealous as He watches us spend time working to attain worldly pleasures - the time that's supposed to belong to Him. When we finally get around to Him He gently smiles as He speaks: "I've been waiting for you... I've missed you..." Those words will either pierce our hearts, or we'll shrug them off and hope that it'll be a short meeting time. After all, we're busy...

Hmmm... Maybe it's time to stop and think about what's really important to us. Jesus did, and He paid a high price to attain it: long hours praying for it in a garden, loss of friends, countless mockeries and beatings, humiliation, a long path leading up to a darkened hill, a cross, three nails, a crown of thorns... And ultimately His life. We were and are what's important to Him. And all He wants is some unrushed time with us - alone - each day. He longs for it; He's jealous for it. Who are we that the Creator of the universe would want to spend time with some puny, molded clay? I haven't an answer to that question. But this one thing I know: He loves us so much. And He longs, He yearns to spend time with us.

We as humans have no reason or right to be jealous about anything.