god and relationships

Throughout Scripture, God has wanted a relationship with His creation.  He started with a perfect paradise in which He put the man and the woman and gave them all that they needed.  The Fall of man was not God's fault, but mankind's choice.  He still wanted a relationship.  When he almost destroyed everything with a flood, he didn't destroy Noah because the Bible says "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8).  He chose Abraham to build a nation and Abraham was called the "Friend" of God! (Genesis 15:6, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23) When God showed up in the burning bush to Moses he identified Himself in terms of relationship as "The God of your fathers" (Exodus 3:6) When he instructed Moses after the Exodus on perpetuating the heritage to future generations, it was based on relationship (Deuteronomy 6:1-9)  In light of that I guess we shouldn't be surprised that in the darkest days of Judah's history, God used Ezekiel and Jeremiah to make their prophetic appeals based on that relationship. 8 times across Ezekiel and Jeremiah we see the Lord looking forward to a day where He will be their God and they will be His people (Jer. 24:7; 31:33; 32:38; Ezek. 11:20; 14:11; 34:30; 37:23, 27; Hos. 4:12; 2 Cor. 6:16; Heb. 8:10) God longs for relationship with His people!  Praise God!