The God Who Never Lets Go (Part 1): The God Who Says Live
The Scene in the Field
Picture it: a wide, barren field outside the city. The ground is dusty, cracked, silent except for the faint, struggling cry of an infant. There, in the dirt, lies a newborn baby her cord still uncut, her skin still unwashed, wrapped in nothing. She has been abandoned. No one has come to clean her. No one has lifted her in compassion. She has been left to die.
This is the picture God gives through the prophet Ezekiel. It is raw, shocking, and heartbreaking.
“On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean… No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.” (Ezekiel 16:4–5)
God was speaking about His chosen people, Israel. This abandoned infant represented not just one girl, but a whole nation, the nation through whom He would bring forth the Redeemer of the world. That’s why this passage carries such weight. Their betrayal later would break God’s heart, because these were His people, the ones He rescued, raised, and loved as His own.
And yet, even knowing their weakness, His first word has His great mercy.
His First Word: Live!
“Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there I said to you, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:6)
That one word changes everything. God does not pass by with disgust. He bends low, sees the child in her helplessness, and speaks life.
This word Live is more than survival. In Hebrew, it carries the sense of flourishing, thriving, growing into fullness. It is both command and gift. It is the breath of God calling someone out of despair into destiny.
For Israel, it was their very existence as a people. For us, it is the gospel in seed form. For me, it became personal at a waterfall.
My Waterfall Story
I know this word personally. In 1996, at a women’s retreat, I stood by a waterfall. On the outside, I was fine. On the inside, I felt like that infant in the field small, unseen, unworthy. I carried shame and a quiet sense that I was forgotten.
And as the water roared over the rocks, God whispered into my spirit: “Live.”
No one else heard it, but it was louder than anything I’d ever known inside me. That one word broke through years of lies. It told me I was not discarded. I was not forsaken. I was wanted. That waterfall became my “field,” the place where God bent down and claimed me.
I was already a Christian, but that day He took me deeper. He showed me that when He first brought me to Himself years earlier, He had already said Live. But here, alone by the waterfall, He said it again in a more powerful way so I could finally understand the depth of what He had done.
Old Enough for Love
The following year, I returned to the same retreat. This time, I wasn’t standing alone. I was walking the trails and meeting other women along the way. And in that moment, I felt Him pass by again and whisper something new: “Now you are old enough for love.”
It was His way of saying: You’ve received My life; now you are ready to receive My love, and in Me, to give My love.
Just like the girl in Ezekiel’s vision, I was growing. God had not only rescued me; He was raising me, bringing me into maturity, preparing me for covenant.
Why This Scene Matters for Us
Ezekiel 16 reminds us:
God’s first word is life, even in our most helpless places.
His covenant love is not only about survival it is about growing into beauty, intimacy, and maturity.
Our personal story echoes Israel’s bigger story: God rescues us, raises us, and prepares us to love.
For women in midlife and beyond, this is powerful. When the world whispers that our time has passed, God whispers: “Live, and receive My love.”
Reflection
Close your eyes and imagine that barren field. See the infant, alone and helpless. Now see God stoop down, pick her up, and whisper: Live.
Now place yourself there. Can you hear Him saying it to you? What would change in your life if you believed Him?
Now picture yourself walking the trail with Him, old enough for His love, ready to both receive it and share it. That is your story too.
“When God says ‘Live,’ He is not just keeping us alive. He is preparing us to receive His love.”
