Thought:

Love and compassion, they have the ability to forgive, break down walls and restore the lost.  Problem is, the unforgiven, the ones building up walls and those that feel they are lost causes and hopeless, these feeling compound, like the interest in our retirement plans.  The longer these feelings of hopelessness are around the harder it is to break through.  Feelings of inadequacy and the need for defensiveness somehow can grow inside as a result of being beaten down and/or beating ourselves down.  This is a life that is almost cannibalism of the soul.  Gomer, the wife of Hosea, seeking the one thing she knew best or maybe was most familiar with, left home to deal and cope with the one thing she new she was good at, failure.

Hear the Good News, just as Hosea sought Gomer, the love of his life, God seeks us out out of love and compassion.  God has this desire to have a relationship with us and asks that this relationship be like that of a marriage covenant.  Knowing who God is to us and who were are to Him, love and compassion for one another and faithfulness, this is what he asks.  Gomer, being used and abused most of life like that of work boots, felt most comfortable in the mud and grime of life.  Seeking to be one step ahead of rejection by doing it to herself, she ran.  But what she did not know and realize was the love that Hosea had for her.  We should stop running and recognize the love and compassion that is not only ours to receive, but to share.  What an image, Hosea, receiving Gomer back into his arms, carrying her home . . .

Prayer: