does God really understand?

i've been listening to this song by the david crowder band lately. it's pretty simple lyrically, but the words "from wherever you are, wherever you've been, he's been there" have been speaking to me lately.

on one particular occasion, i was sitting at a stoplight with the song blaring in the background and wondered to myself, "does God know what it's like to wait on an adoption? has he really been here too?"

and immediately, this verse popped into my head:

"o jerusalem, jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! how often would i have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"

random verse, i know. but i imagine jesus overlooking jerusalem and desperately wishing that his people would not reject him, wanting them to repent and believe and return to him. and i imagine that he still looks at us -- all of us -- in this way now as we go our own ways completely ignorant of him. oh, how he waits patiently for us. oh, how he wants to gather us under his wings.

so yes, i think God understands what it's like to wait on an adoption. i realize all the metaphors don't completely add up (nor are all the theological intricacies accounted for). God pursues us, but he also waits for us to choose him, not only at the first moment of conversion, but every time we sin and have need for confession, repentence, and forgiveness. so as we wait for our children and experience the pain and frustration of waiting, i believe we can take solace in knowing that our God knows this pain and this frustration of so desperately wanting to gather our children to us.