Does not wisdom call out?  Does not understanding raise her voice? (Proverbs 8:1)

Sometimes it feels like we've strayed so far from God and His wisdom that there's no way back into fellowship with Him.  If I were God, at least, I would probably have given up by now -- calling out for people to come back home, quit their foolishness, and just rest a spell with Me.  My voice would be hoarse, and My feelings would be hurt.  And at some point, after a few thousand years of trying to bring the wandering sheep back into the fold, I think I'd just give up.

Fortunately, though, I'm not God.

Proverbs 8:1 says, quite explicitly, that God and His wisdom are still calling out for us.  God is still raising His voice, even after all these years.  Yes, we have wandered a long way and done a lot of stupid things -- but we're not a lost cause.  Proverbs chapter 8 reminds me of Romans chapter 1 in a number of different ways.  Starting in verse 20, Romans 1 explains that "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator —- who is forever praised... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity..."

It can, indeed, feel like a very desperate and hopeless situation.

But then, later on in Romans chapter 3, we come to the same sort of encouragement that can be found in Proverbs 8:1.  "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:21-24).  God is there.  He is not silent.  He is not passive.  He is calling out to us and waiting to save us.