“The LORD said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’”
- Hosea 3:1 (NIV)
You just got married and not long after your husband cheats on you, your wife commits adultery. How do you feel? What would you do? Hosea’s wife did just that to him, treated him like nothing, braking her vow and promise to him. Instead of reacting in ballistic violence of revenge and what she and the other person involved deserves, Hosea calls out to her in love, taking her back despite the fact that she left him for another man. His actions, as God had said to him to do, represented and mirrored His love for the Israelites who had turned away from Him to lifeless idols.
God loves us. Even though we may ignore him, push him away, tell him he doesn’t exist, and do opposite of what we hear he says, God still loves us. Even in the days before the new covenant, days written in the Old Testament, when the Jews were required to bring sacrifices, God loved his people fiercely. And he still does today, just as God will forever.
Unfortunately we do not have forever and a day to come to this understanding, to live until we realize or see the truth. No, we live in a world where our time is short, some shorter than others – often cut short by another’s faults, disease, or freak accidents. Even a fully lived out life is short, for today you may be young but tomorrow you will be old. And no one is promised tomorrow, and one day, before you know it, life has passed by and each breath draws you closer to your last.
This is why God is so passionate for us to know him, why his love for us overcomes him and leaves us often with mercy undeserved (the same reason why God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us). He knows that life is short for us, but he has made an eternal one for us; He knows that “life” here is unfair, but he is fair to us and loves us even though we have all turned our backs to him at one point or another.
I think of God’s love for us like this:
When I am married I will love my wife with all that I have, and I dream of a life lived with her in full, but that does not mean we will. Death will come one day or another, whether tomorrow or when we are old with grandkids. And I think about it, how unfair death really is, to not just cease to exist, but to be apart from someone you love with all of your heart, your entire being. This to me is truly unfair, and this, above all else, is what makes life truly unfair to me.
This is I believe how God feels about us. We were made in his image, are his creation, and are considered to be his sons and daughters. God recognizes death to be unfair, and his love when we embrace back can carry us through death into a new life, reunited with God…and with my wife. So when that day comes, I know now, that this separation will be but momentary compared to the eternal life God has for us.
Even now it is not something I completely grasp, but there are a lot of things I do not understand completely. And just because I don’t completely understand does not keep me from believing and trying (If it did, I probably wouldn’t drive, use a cell phone, let someone else do surgery on me, or get on a plane…’Great America’ would have definitely of been a No, No too).
God loves you just as much as he loves me. We don't always see it, especially if what stands out and what we see is the evil and unfairness of this world and blame God for the bad things that happens in this life. It's so easy to skip over the good, the gift of life, the complexity of micro-organisms that allows our bodies to function, the vastness of our universe that created this small planet to exist and make the perfect atmosphere for life, getting married, having your first child, and watching your child grow.
Remember, life is unfair to us all, the good and the bad, believers and unbelievers alike, the difference is recognizing and choosing to allow the creator of this universe to stand with you and help you through it all.
