South Padre Island
Today I have not been to productive. And no, to be honest, this is not from today. I took this about a year and a half ago. This morning I heard an amazing sermon from Brother Ben Butler at Way of the Cross Ministries. He spoke on Hosea. Now, until today I hadn't heard Hosea. I am trying my best at having a relationship with Jesus but I started in the New Testament with my reading so this story wasn't something that I was familiar with. I want to share it because it touched me deeply.
Now, I don't have the finesse that Brother Ben has so I'll just tell the story my way. God told Hosea to marry a harlot. Yep, you heard me, a harlot. (= to prostitute, hooker, slave) Her name was Gomer. (Yes, I thought the same thing, Gomer Pyle...;)) Now Hosea came upon Gomer in a slave auction. I can't imagine anything worse than that. She was naked, beaten, skinny from lack of nutrition, and though she was about 28, I have to imagine that the life she led showed on her face. And here she was paraded about in front of all these men, who are bidding on her to be their slave. (As a note,slavery was common practice in Israel and many other nations.) It must have been horrible for her, hearing her life reduced to shekels. One Shekel, two shekel, three shekels....who will bid 4? I'd like to think personally that my life is worth more than all the shekels in the world, what must she have thought as she stood up there on that stage? Just as the bidding is almost over, maybe a 10 shekel price is at stake, a voice comes from the crowd...15 shekels and a homer and a half of grain. The auctioneer bangs his gavel...SOLD.
Then he walked up to the stage, covered her with a blanket and took her hand and led her home as his WIFE, not slave. Anybody think that might have a parallel here? We are broken, hurting, sometimes mean, living in the world. We have vices, and faults and we live on the edge. Yet, Jesus comes, takes our hand, puts a blanket of comfort and peace around us and doesn't judge us, He makes us better people.
This photo reminds me of peace. Of comfort. Of beauty. God's beauty. I can almost imagine the light in the sky being Jesus watching and wanting to be in a relationship with us all.
God is REAL. God is GOOD.
Until Tomorrow
Grace Be With You
Katie
I need to make a correction here, This story is even more significant because of a fact that I didn't know. Gomer was Hosea's wife and she left him and their children (2 that were not his) for another man and life and eventually ended up on the slave auction block. Hosea still forgave her and searched for her and brought her home. That is just really amazing to me. Katie
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