How can it be? When we're naked and ashamed and alone in our brokenness, Christ envelopes us with his intimate grace. When we're rejected and abandoned and shattered beyond wanting, Jesus cups our face, Come close, my Beloved.

When we're dirty and tear-stained and despairing, Jesus Christ proposes undying, dying love: All that you painfully are and are carrying I'll take, and all that I perfectly am and have is yours. Just take me.

There is a wooing that washes our wounds. Falling into this intimacy with Him is the one thing we pray to never recover from. This kind of intimacy can only be tasted and swallowed, and it burns a holy yes through our begging veins.