"He was never faithful to her."
"Once a cheater, always a cheater."
"I knew that relationship was doomed from the start."
Probably all of us have heard comments like this said about a relationship. Maybe we've even had it said of us or said it ourselves about someone else. No matter how much we love our fairy-tales of "happily ever after", we ask ourselves how many relationships actually end up that way?
As a child you dream of that moment when you meet your prince or princess you are destined to marry. Your diary becomes filled with endless wonderings about who that person will be and if you've already met that magical person. You have your first crush and eventually your first boyfriend/girlfriend, and you think to yourself that this is the person you MUST be destined for!
Then you grow up. Suddenly you realize that relationships don't turn out like every Hallmark movie you watch around Christmas time. Prince Charming isn't quite so charming when he's mad at you and Cinderella doesn't act quite so sweet when she's angry. The drama of musicals such as Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera seems like a walk in the park compared to real life!
Yet even with all these findings, most of us will decide to say yes when the question of marriage is proposed. We'll think that marriage will solve every problem! And then one day, some of us may wake up to realize that the perfect dream we had as a child has turned into a nightmare of cheating and divorce.
We live in a world where faithfulness means nothing, both before and after the marriage vows. "What's the problem with a little fun here or there as long as our significant other doesn't find out?" seems to be the thought of our generation. Love has warped into simply a feeling without any commitment. Is it crazy to at some point begin to wonder if it is even worth it to love someone?
So then why in the world does God talk so much about us being His bride?!
Like seriously, couldn't God had found some better way of describing our relationship with him???
But the odd thing is, when God talks of us as His bride, He's not painting a perfect picture of a happily-ever-after kind of relationship. Truth be told, it's more the complete opposite!
The bride that is described by so many of the Old Testament prophets is temperamental and self seeking. She doesn't understand the ways of her Husband and resents Him for that. She's unfaithful and even a prostitute. She's nothing that anyone of "good" reputation should desire or seek after.
As horrible as this person sounds, isn't it sobering to think about how this describes our relationship with God? We're a good Christian most of the time, especially when people are watching, but how quickly we'll push Jesus aside when it comes to satisfying our own wants and desires. We don't understand why God allows certain things in our lives and begin to view Him as someone who really doesn't have our best interests at heart. How many times do we find ourselves being unfaithful to God and chasing after thing that we think will bring us satisfaction?
So why should God care about us if this is who we are? Why doesn't He just give up on the notion of love? Is it worth it?
This morning I found a verse that sums it up perfectly.
"'They say 'If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, may he return to her again?' Would not the land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many loves..'"
If the verse stopped there, we wouldn't have any hope but it continues by saying,
"'Yet, return to Me,' says the LORD."
Jeremiah 3:1
The power in the word "yet"! To God it doesn't matter how many times we've walked away or fallen down. It doesn't matter what situation we might be in because He still wants us to come back to Him. The story of Hosea is one of the most powerful stories of that redeeming love. It didn't matter that Gomer had left Hosea to return to prostitution and now was enslaved because of her own free choices. Hosea was still to go and buy her freedom and bring her back, not as a servant but as his wife once again.
How God can have so much love I do not know, but one thing I do know: that love will never fail or run out. When you realize what that kind of love is like, how can you not return back to God? How can it not drive you to realize that His love is greater than whatever you're holding onto. And if it has the power to draw you back to Him, what else can that love do for you and every struggle you face?
For me, realizing that makes me see how unworthy I am to even receive it! After all my failings, how can God want me to return to Him? Doesn't He have someone better to consider His own?
But isn't that what love is all about? Love is being committed and devoted to someone despite their failings. Love is seeing someone as precious in your sight even if others don't see them that way because you can see their heart. Love has nothing to do with anything the other person could do or say and isn't based on feelings or desires. If you tried to describe love to someone who had never experienced love, they would become completely lost and could never understand it's depth until they themselves had experienced it. Add in the fact that love is always growing and maturing, suddenly love becomes even more complicated! If love is so hard to understand in its entirety, how then are we to understand it?
Maybe it's not about understanding love but instead experiencing it that we can actually begin to "get it."
So I don't know about you, but I want to know the love of Christ. I want to return to Him every time I stumble, and day by day, I think I'll begin to comprehend the crazy and impossible to understand love Christ has for me.
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