Mark this well: Christ delights to think upon his Church and gaze upon her beauty. As a bird returns again and again to its nest, as a traveler rushes home, so the mind always circles back to what it loves most. We cannot look too often upon the face we love! We want our precious things always in sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus.

From all eternity, "his delights were with the sons of men." His thoughts rolled forward to the moment when his chosen ones would be born into the world. He saw them in the mirror of his perfect foreknowledge. "In your book," he says, "all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." When the world was set upon its pillars, he was there. He set the boundaries of nations according to the number of his people.

Long before he took on flesh, he came down to this earth in the form of a man. On the plains of Mamre, where he ate with Abraham. By the brook Jabbok, where he wrestled with Jacob. Outside Jericho's walls, where he appeared as captain of the Lord's army. In Babylon's furnace, where he walked with three faithful men through the flames. The Son of Man visited his people! Why? Because his soul delighted in them. He could not rest away from them—his heart longed after them.

Never were they absent from his heart! He had written their names upon his hands and engraved them upon his side. Think of it—just as the breastplate bearing the names of Israel's tribes was the high priest's most brilliant ornament, so the names of Christ's elect are his most precious jewels, glittering on his heart.

We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but he never ceases to remember us. Never! Let us rebuke ourselves for past forgetfulness and pray for grace to bear him always in fondest memory. Lord, paint upon the eyes of my soul the image of your Son!