Forever love

Hosea 11 is a tender image of God’s love for His people. The image of a father and his child. The father whose heart is irrevocably changed that first time he is handed that wonderful bundle of human wonder that is his very own child. Whose heart melts every time he watches his child sleeping. Who gently reaches out and strokes that tiny cheek and touches those tiny toes.

That father who watches his child grow with pride and joy. Who gently introduces small amounts of bland rice on a plastic spoon into his child’s open mouth like a baby bird opening its tiny yellow beak. Who supports his baby under the arms as he starts to put weight on his legs. Who holds those little hands as his child takes his first wobbly steps. Who sweeps his child up in his arms when he comes in from work and touches soft cheek to soft cheek.

A relationship built on love, trust and dependence.

And then as the child grows, he starts to do his own thing. To question whether his father knows what he is doing. His friends seem far more exciting. He’s led astray. He rebels. He does it his own way.

But the father’s heart is still filled with love and tenderness, It breaks a little more each time he sees his child make another mistake. It hurts a little more each time his child rejects his advice and support. The father can be firm. He’s told he should discipline his child for the child’s own good. But he loves his child with an overwhelming love. He wants more than anything else to be in relationship with him, to draw him close again. He treasures those fleeting moments of connection that don’t come often enough.

How could he ever give up on his baby boy? How could he turn his back and wash his hands of him? How could he ever stop caring, stop loving?

There will always be a way back because this is his boy, that baby he held in his arms all those years before, that baby who found a special place in his heart that day.

He will always be ready, always be waiting. Always looking out and ready for his child’s return into his warm, compassionate embrace.

This is God’s love for His people. This is God’s love for you and for me.

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realise
it was I who healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek,
and I bent down to feed them…
My people are determined to turn from me.
Even though they call me God Most High,
I will by no means exalt them.
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?…
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I devastate Ephraim again.  Hosea 11:1-9

It’s such a beautiful passage, isn’t it? Wonderfully tender. And yet there is more, so much more.

Because human love is human. Human love does sometimes give up. Human love is flawed. We may have been fortunate enough to have had some really great experiences of being loved in our lives, but for many, this experience is tainted and the love of another cannot be fully relied upon.

The great news is that God is not human. He is so much more than that.

For I am God, and not a man –
the Holy One among you.  Hosea 11:9

God is God. And God is love. God’s love is perfect and everlasting. Forever love. God’s love is everything you could ever imagine love to be. God loves us like a father loves his newborn child, but so, so, so much more.

God feels like that about me and about you. About every human being who has ever lived. His heart is ready to welcome each one of us back in an instant.

Wow. Just wow.