Whole and Complete

I am re-posting blogs this week as I am attending a conference. I hope you both enjoy and learn from those I have selected to post all week.  Blessings! 

“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her out into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.” Hosea 2:14-15a 

Each of us is a Gomer. Gomer thought that these men in her bed would complete her, make her whole somehow. She chased something she would never capture or possess. 

Each of us desires to be complete, to be whole in a way we struggle to articulate. Those of us that have husbands think and believe that our man will do this for us. Those of us that have no husband expect that if we did, he would. However wonderful and fantastic that man is he is not enough. He cannot fill God’s place.

It is said that you know that he loves you enough if he is willing to die for you. Even if he died for you, you would not be complete or whole. There is only One whose death can make you complete and whole. His death will bring you life. When that moment comes, your life follows Him into death and you are born anew. And you are complete in Him.

And yet we try to run away. He loves us; do we really think we can run away from that? Hosea ran after his love each time she strayed and his faithfulness to her is but a slit-eyed glimpse of God’s faithfulness and pursuit of us. We resist His love because we fear the loss of things that have become comfortable and part of us, like old shoes. We stuff our trash, our “worldly things” in our pack and try to haul them off to the next station in life and all along He is telling us, “No Beloved. Leave them here.”

He gets our attention and we try (vainly) to put things between us and Him. He will not let us pass by hauling our “treasures” the way is too narrow.
“Get out of the way!” We scream. “Let me pass!”
“Not a chance” He replies.
“Leave me alone!” We cry.
“Never. Never, ever will I leave you alone.” He says, “You are mine.”

In an enormous battle of the will you rage on, fighting and scratching to maintain…what? Exactly what is it you are fighting so hard to hold on to? Your past? Your pain? Your sin? Your unworthiness? Your harlotry? What do you have in your pack that is so precious to you that you cannot unload it?

His is a love that cleanses, renews, hopes, and repairs all things. His is a love that does not cast blame or wound you. He does not spite or abuse you. 

“Come to Me and I will give you rest…”

His redemption of me is stunning to me at this moment. His pursuit of me is amazing. His gentle love that brings me back time after time…I cannot comprehend it.