INTRODUCTION:
G O D , T H E O N E W H O A C C O M PA N I E S
S
ince the creation of human beings, God has communicated his love
through a relationship with humanity. This model of faithful relation-
ship begins to unfold gradually in the Old Testament. In the creation
accounts, God establishes a friendship with Adam. God also gives Adam
the gift of human relationship by creating the woman, Eve. With his peo-
ple Israel, God pursues an intimacy and relationship, proclaiming through
mighty deeds and faithful covenants:
I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.
(Exodus 6:7)
To this wandering people Israel, God provided signs of his presence, such
as a column of cloud and pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22) to “precede”,
guide, and call them further and further along the Way. God reaffirms
his relationship with his people through the spoken words of the prophets,
who preach his passionate love and exhort wayward souls to “return to the
LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abound-
ing in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:13). Even though
his people strayed, God remained faithful:
How could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be pre-
served, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all
things, because they are yours, O Ruler and Lover of souls.
(Wisdom 10: 25-26)
Through his continual creation, signs, mighty deeds, covenants, and words
spoken by the prophets, God never leaves his people, but instead remains
faithful and draws even more closely to them.
In the New Testament, God reaffirms his relationship with his people
through a new covenant: the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Out of overflow-
ing love for his people, God gives humanity the gift of his Son, Jesus:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have
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