The Most Glorious Romance

Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
Hosea 2:14

He loves her; she loves him not. He loves her; she loves him not. She loves him, he loves her; she loves him not. It's an unending cycle of unfaithfulness, plaintive pleas for forgiveness, proclaimed love, and then unfaithfulness again.




In our day and age, we would tell the guy to give up on this kind of adulteress. She causes him pain with her every move. She disrespects his undying love for her and belittles his patience and adoration.


Unrequited love. It makes for a tragic love story, powerfully moving, but painfully disappointing. You know what it was like in High school when you had a crush on a guy and he didn't even know you existed? That pales in comparison.

I'm thankful I can say that I've never felt the sting of adultery. But, I know quite a few who have. It's ugly. The agony of being cast aside for a newer model is excruciating.


That's how God feels.


He pours out His love upon us day after day and day after day we don't even acknowledge that He exists. We bow down to our idols of selfishness, worldliness, and materialism and leave God out of the equation.


I'm not just talking about non-believers either. We who call ourselves Christians - we leave God out of our everyday lives too. We say our prayers in the morning and leave God there, in between the dusty pages of an old Book. We don't think about Him again until dinner prayers.


In Hosea's time, God wanted to get His beloved's attention. He saw that pouring out love and blessings upon His people wasn't causing them to respond with love towards Him. So, He acted drastically. He said He would strip them (literally) of all their blessings and leave them bare before the world. Though it pained Him to do this, He did it out of pure love.


God used Hosea's life as a living parable. Poor Hosea. He had to marry a harlot and keep bringing her back home and rescuing her from affair after affair. I can't even comprehend the depth of that love. Why didn't he give up on her after the first strike upon his heart? Or the second? The third? No. He continued to pursue her despite her repeated rejection of his love.


This is the most beautiful love story of all time. We long for someone to love us despite our failures; for someone to see past our weaknesses into our heart. God's love for us far surpasses the love from Cinderella or "The Notebook."


This God whose name is Love, will never give up on us. He will do whatever it takes to get our love. He will woo us, and call us and pursue us until we give into His love.


Go visit Heather at Titus 2 woman for more thoughts on this verse.