“Cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” The church is not only “one body,” but also “many members”; “for the body is not one member, but many.” And what is true for the whole is true also for the smallest part. Lest any one should think the individual is rather lost in the great whole, the gracious word of our God comes down to meet the possible or passing tremor, and says: “Ye are,” not only the body of Christ, but “members in particular.”
Do not hesitate to take all the revelation of love that shines softly through this one word “cherisheth,” for your own self; for the more you feel yourself to be the weakest imaginable member of Christ, unworthy to be a member at all of His glorious body, the more closely and sweetly will it apply to you.
For it necessarily implies, on the one side, weakness and inferiority and need. It would be nothing to us if we felt extremely strong and capable and self-contained. The Lord would never have taken the trouble to cause it to be written for such people. They would neither want it nor thank Him for it. We do not talk about “cherishing” an oak tree, or an athlete, or even a “strong minded woman.” Our heart welcome to this beautiful word, and our sense of its preciousness, will be just in proportion to our sense of being among the Lord’s little ones, or weak ones, no matter what others suppose us to be. After all, are not even those who are chasing thousands, but little ones and those who are slaying Goliaths, but weak ones in their real and hidden relationship to their own great and mighty Saviour and Lord? Even a father in Christ or a mother in Israel may turn with the heart of a little child, lovingly and gratefully, and perhaps very wearily too, to their cherishing Lord, to be comforted afresh with the old comforts, and hushed to rest on the little pillow of some very familiar text.
The Lord Jesus has said of all who love Him. “I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.” See how He manifested Himself to you in these words, as your Cherisher. The word conveys, on His side, nothing but affection, and gentle thoughtful care. How do we cherish a little weak plant? There were plenty of handsomer ones, but this little cutting or seedling was perhaps a gift in the first place; and then we took a fancy to it, so that we cared doubly for it. Then we felt a sort of pity for it, because it was such a delicate little thing; so we shielded it, and perhaps repotted it, that it might strike its little roots more freely. We watched it day by day, giving it just enough water and not too much. We set it in the light when it was ready, and turned it round now and then, so that even too much light might not make it grow one-sidedly. And when at last it put out a flower for us, we thought more of that than of any ninety-nine blossoms in the great garden. Is not this something like our Lord’s cherishing?
Then think how “a nurse cherisheth her children” (1 Thess. 2:77But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: (1 Thessalonians 2:7)). That is, a gentle and wise one. How the little ailments are watched and attended to; how the little weary heads are laid on her shoulders and stroked to sleep; how the little meals are regulated and given; never forgotten, who ever heard of such a thing! How the little garments are kept clean and comfortable, changed and mended, as need may be. How the nursery fire is looked after (while all the while the guard is kept on the bars), so that the room should not be too hot or too cold. How the little bodies are cared for and loved every inch, even the little fingers and toes! How the little fancies are borne with and entered into, not unheeded or scorned; and the silly little questions patiently answered, and the baby lessons taught, and the small tempers managed, and checked, and forgiven! That is cherishing. Need we trace its close resemblance to the dealings of our infinitely patient and gentle Lord?
Then think of the still higher and closer cherishing of the weak wife by the strong husband, itself shown by the only possible stronger figure, “No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it”; this set forth by the Holy Spirit through the pen of an apostle, to convey to you some dim idea of the Lord’s love and care and thought for you. What could He say more? For even thus the Lord cherisheth you He gives you His name to bear as your honor, and His very heart to dwell in as the home of your soul. He gives you the right of constant access, the right of continual dwelling in His presence. He makes you partaker of His very nature, joining you unto Himself, not only in a perpetual covenant, but as “one spirit” with Him. He pays all your debts, and now all your wants lie upon Him, and these wants are each and all foreseen and provided for, and supplied with untiring love. He knows in an instant when you are weary or ailing, whether in body or spirit, and knows how to speak the right word for either, speaking verily to your heart, knows, too, when to be silent for a little while. His cherishing goes on night and day, just as much in the dark as in the light; and will go on, faithfully, ceaselessly, all through your lifelong need of it, unto the end; and there is no shadowing whisper to fall upon this life-long manifestation of love, no such word as “till death us do part.” No absence of your Lord shall deprive you of it; and all that death can do is to take away the last veil, that you may see face to face, and know even as you are known. His care over you will then be exchanged for perfect joy over you. “He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”
“From glory unto glory.”
Though tribulation fall,
It cannot touch our treasure
when Christ is all in all!
Whatever lies before us,
there can be naught to feat;
For what are pain and sorrow
when Jesus Christ is near!”