This morning I found myself in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 62:12 to be precise.

“And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.”

I took a moment to glance through my ESV Study Bible to find that the “they” is “God’s old covenant people Israel, plus all others willing to join them.” So in short, us. Me, you, the Christian of today and the Christian of yesterday. Believers.

The passage tells us that God seeks us out. That God’s grace is seen through the fact that we were not only sought, but sought out by Him. What does that even mean? Or rather, what does it really mean to seek something or someone out? C.H. Spurgeon paints it this way:

“… [We] were lost in a labyrinth; we wandered hither and thither, and when mercy came after us with the gospel, it did not find us at the first coming, it had to search for us and seek us out; for we as lost sheep were so desperately lost, and had wandered into such a strange country, that it did not seem possible that even the Good Shepherd should track our devious roamings. Glory be to unconquerable grace, we were sought out! No gloom could hide us, no filthiness could conceal us, we were found and brought home.”

For those of you that have been in a labyrinth (or like me, have been in one in a video game), you know that at some point, it gets very nerve-racking, almost scary because you’re not quite sure where you are. But any labyrinth that any of us have experienced, there was no real danger in our experience. But in the labyrinth that Spurgeon is describing, there is evil and harm around every bend. And God waltzes in and seeks us out. He marches into our dangerous situation and rescues us. Redeems us. Brings us home.

God calls us, His people, “Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.”