Scripture
“My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…'”
— Song of Songs 2:10–12
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8
There are days when I look back over my life and wonder how God could possibly love someone like me.
I don’t see a spiritual giant.
I see a broken man.
I see someone who has stumbled more times than he can count. A man who has ignored God’s voice, defended his pride, chosen comfort over obedience, and broken His commandments in thought, in word, and in deed.
If my life were presented as evidence in a courtroom, I would have no defense.
And yet…
When I open the Scriptures, I don’t hear condemnation as the final word. I hear an invitation.
“Come now, My love.”
Those words almost seem misplaced.
Surely God is speaking to someone other than me.
Someone whose life isn’t marked by so many failures.
Someone who hasn’t wandered so far.
But that isn’t the Gospel.
The Gospel is that Jesus always moved toward the broken.
He ate with sinners.
He touched lepers.
He defended the ashamed.
He restored failures.
He forgave those who nailed Him to the cross.
He did not wait for people to become worthy before loving them. He loved them into transformation.
Brennan Manning wrote in The Furious Longing of God that many of us spend our lives believing in God while quietly doubting that He delights in us. We accept that God is loving, but struggle to believe that His love is personal enough to include me, with all of my shame and failure.
I understand that struggle.
I know what it feels like to believe the facts of the Gospel while secretly wondering if they apply to me.
But the cross answers that question forever.
Jesus knew every chapter of my story before I lived a single page.
He knew every failure I would carry.
Every hidden motive.
Every selfish choice.
Every season of wandering.
And He still stretched out His hands.
The invitation was never based on my goodness.
It has always rested on His.
So perhaps when Jesus says,
“Come now, My love…”
He isn’t ignoring my past.
He is declaring that my past no longer has the final word.
Winter has passed.
Not because I finally became good enough.
But because Christ entered my winter, bore my sin, and walked out of the grave so I could walk into His spring.
One day I will stand before Him, and I believe my greatest surprise won’t be how much I loved Him.
It will be discovering how much He loved me all along.
Prayer
Father,
There are still places in my heart that struggle to believe Your love is truly for me. I know my failures. I remember my regrets. I carry memories that remind me how often I have fallen short of Your holiness.
Yet You continue to call me, “Beloved.”
Thank You for loving me before I ever thought to love You. Thank You for pursuing me when I wandered, for carrying me when I was too weak to walk, and for never giving up on me even when I doubted You—or doubted Your love for me.
Help me to stop measuring Your love by my performance. Teach me to measure it by the cross.
When shame tells me to hide, remind me of Your invitation.
When guilt tells me to run, remind me that You ran to meet the prodigal.
When fear tells me I am unworthy, remind me that Jesus was worthy in my place.
May I spend the rest of my life learning what it truly means to be loved by You—not a love I earned, but a love You freely gave.
And when I finally hear Your voice face to face, may my first response simply be,
“I’m home.”
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
Lyrics
Verse 1
I’ve been walking through
The memories again,
Looking at the places
Where I should’ve turned back then.
I see the pride.
I see the shame.
The words I can’t take back.
The times I knew the better road…
And still I chose another path.
If anyone knows
The truth about me,
It’s You.
So when I hear You calling,
I can hardly believe
You’re calling me.
Chorus
Come now, My love.
Come just as you are.
The winter is over.
You don’t have to hide.
Lift up your face.
Let Me hear your voice.
I’ve been waiting here,
Long before you heard Mine.
Come now, My love.
Come home.
Verse 2
I spent so many years
Trying hard to earn
Something You were giving
Long before my turn.
I wore my shame
Like it was my name.
I carried every scar.
Never dreaming grace
Could ever reach this far.
But You saw every failure,
Every secret,
Every sin.
And somehow
You stayed here.
Chorus
Come now, My love.
Come just as you are.
The flowers are waking.
The morning has come.
Lift up your face.
Let Me hear your voice.
I’ve never stopped
Calling your name.
Come now, My love.
Come home.
Bridge
I don’t understand it.
I never will.
The Holy One
Reached for these broken hands.
You knew every chapter
Before my story was told.
Still…
You opened Your arms.
Still…
You called me beloved.
Still…
You whispered my name.
Come now…
My love.
Final Chorus
Come now, My love.
The winter is gone.
The old has surrendered.
A new day has dawned.
Lift up your face.
There’s nothing to prove.
You were loved before
You ever knew love.
Come now, My love.
Come home.
Outro
When I stand before You,
It won’t be because
I finally became worthy.
It will be because
Your mercy never stopped
Coming after me.
My story
Was never about
How tightly I held on to You.
It was always about
How faithfully
You held on to me.
Come now, My love.
I’m coming home.
Copyright © 2026 by Skyler Thomas