Introduction to Love

Love.  A noun defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.  A verb defined as a need or requirement, something to benefit greatly from.  Affection seems too casual to describe a love that endures great pain for another.  A requirement does not begin to fill the gaping hole left behind by betrayal.  Why then would anyone hold on so fiercely to something so painful?  Only God would know.

I think about the love I have for my family.  I have been blessed with a loving family; we are as passionate in our love for one another as we are in our arguing with one another at times!  We argue but I have no doubt that the love we have for each other is unconditional and unwavering.  We may not always like each other but we will always love each other.  I can try to imagine that love magnified to the umpteenth but would still have no concept of how unfathomable God’s love is for us.  I believe that He mourns with us, He laughs with us, He carries us when we fall, and is clapping with the Angels when we succeed.  Just like a loving parent He loves us even when He is disappointed or angry with our actions.  I can accept that easily with my parents but it seems almost incomprehensible to know that the creator of the world loves me through all my mistakes, in spite of my humanity.  Yet, I believe with all my heart that this is the truth that God gave us in Christ.  Love that sends its son to die that I might live.  How does the human race define such love?  Only God knows how to write such a definition.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God used the painful, personal story of Hosea to relate how personal and painful His love is for us.  God asked Hosea to take an adulterous wife, and she gave him three children: Jezreel, signifying the punishment of Israel; Lo-Ruhamah, God’s removal of His love for Israel; and Lo-Ammi, for God said of Israel “you are not my people, and I am not your God.” (Hosea 1:9) Using Hosea’s life and the lives of his family, God expressed His anger with Israel for their adulterous behavior.  They prayed not to God but to the gods of the land.  They saw no reason for repentance; they held no fear of the God of Abraham.  The time had come for Israel to learn a painful lesson but hope waits on the horizon. "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' (Hosea 1:10).

As an omnipotent creator, God asks of us things we can not understand.  God told Hosea to take and love, as He would love, an adulterous wife.  Who among us could comprehend the meaning of such a request?  To take and love the very thing that You command us not to do?  There must be a mistake.  Francine Rivers skillfully builds a history for the adulterous wife in Redeeming Love.  Diving into the prologue, I couldn’t help but want to dive back out.  The childhood Angel lives through is one that is tragic beyond measure.  Knowing that such tragedies are not fictional causes my heart to break for her character even more.  Rivers paints such a bleak picture of circumstance that when Michael Hosea enters the picture you want to reach in and grab Angel, compel her to listen to his proposal, to hear the hope within.  So bleak are her circumstances that her hope has packed its bags and left the building, so she says.  There is no coercion when dealing with the human will and spirit.   Gratefully, there is no coercion of God’s will and timing either.  

Life as Angel has known it has seeded cynicism and bitterness.  Life as she has known it has not embodied love, hope, and happiness.  In walks hope and proposes freedom.  Will she listen?  Redemption waits for those who listen.  Will Angel?  Will Israel?  Will we?

Elizabeth’s side bar:
            Elizabeth is Scribblers’ resident English guru and I always send her posts to proof; I also value her opinion.  As friends we have a lot in common but our view points are often from pleasantly different places; I am finding that this is productive as it helps us think beyond our own mental positioning.
            When I said that it seems almost incomprehensible that the creator of the world loves me through all my mistakes, in spite of my humanity, she countered with the opinion that God loves us because of our humanity.  In her words, “I feel like our humanity is a reflection of Him. He created us this way. When discussed in this context, humanity is often used in reference to our failings, but I believe humanity itself is supposed to be a good thing.
            It encompasses so many good emotions like compassion, love, care for one another, humor, joy, hope - all things from God. The high and the low; without the low we would not know the high. And that is the beauty of humanity, isn't it?”
            Great point.  Amazing insight.  God bless a difference of opinion.