“I appeared to them from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV).

Author, David Prince, once told of a family who adopted an older child from an unspeakably horrific orphanage in another country. When they brought the little girl home, one of the things they told her was that she was expected to clean her room every day. When she heard about that responsibility, she fixated on it and saw it as a way she would earn her family’s love. Every morning when her parents entered her room, it was immaculate and she would sit on the bed and say, “My room is clean. Can I stay? Do you still love me?” The child’s words broke her new parents’ hearts.