Fairytale Endings
Hosea 14:4,5 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For my anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread.”
We all love a good love story don’t we? Millions have tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding last week. Not only that, but many traveled to the U.K. to find a spot along the parade route just to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry and his new bride as the horse drawn carriage passed by. The media played and replayed the wedding from every possible angle, every look, every gesture was analyzed. We all are amazed and thrilled that the Prince chose and married the beautiful common girl from America! It helps us realize what it will be like when our “Prince” comes back for us!
Not only has he chosen us common people as His bride, but He chose us knowing that we are not always faithful.
There is a picture of this in the book of Hosea. We read in Hosea 1:2, “When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry, and the children of harlotry. For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.” Not only was Hosea going to knowingly marry someone unfaithful, but he was told his children would be unfaithful as well. Oh the anguish of Hosea, to go and find this probably beautiful woman, marry her knowing that she would leave and go back to her lovers over and over again. That’s what Hosea did . He lovingly would go find her when she was missing, and wipe away her tears of embarrassment and pain and bring her home
This is a picture of our God. He loves us unconditionally. While we were in sin, he gave himself for us. He doesn’t ask us to even clean ourselves up to marry him. He takes us as we are. He gives us clean white robes and washes away our grime. He treats us like royalty, and places us in a position of honor above even the angels.
But then….after all of this, we sneak away and go back to our old habits. But our King does not give up on us, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we come back and confess our sin to Him, He takes us back. None who have fallen need to give up in despair. If we repent, and turn to God, there is hope! A few years ago, a young family came to my home church. They were Bible workers, they were hired to meet new contacts and to do Bible studies etc. to help grow the church. Another part of their job was to get to know the members and teach us to become more involved and help some of us back from being unfaithful. Sometimes when we are in this unfaithful state, we don’t even realize it. This young Bible worker wouldn’t leave me alone! She asked me to go with her. She came to my home and listened to me talk about my family and my business. She took an interest in my son and counseled with him. She would talk with me about spiritual things, she was giving me Bible studies and I didn’t even know it. One day she gave me a book to read. It was a really good book! I couldn’t put it down. I wish that I could remember the name of it or the author, but it was a story based on the book of Hosea. We would meet during the week to go for coffee, and she listened to me go on and on about the characters in the book. The young woman in the book didn’t think she was good enough for the “man of her dreams” and so she kept leaving to go back to her old life. I finally got “it” at the end of the book. This was me! We sometimes think that we are not worthy to be a follower of Christ, we get discouraged and we hide away from Him. We don’t even realize that this is what we are doing . It changed my life. Through her persistence, I finally surrendered to God and have never looked back.
The Bible In Your Hand 