Redeeming Love
By Kathy Isaacs, State Women’s Ministries President, Louisiana

Over the past few months in Louisiana, our women have been reading Francine Rivers’ novel, Redeeming Love.  In her retelling of the Book of Hosea, the author paints a vivid picture of the unconditional love of God.  The 34 chapters take us on a journey through the lives of Michael Hosea and his wife.  As with an old-fashioned, red Fisher Price ViewMaster, we push the lever and see the moving pictures that tell a story of pain, rejection, betrayal, fear, anger, hatred, and even death.  But that is not the end!  If we look a little closer, we see love beyond measure, beyond comprehension, beyond our wildest dreams.  It is redeeming love!

What does it mean to be redeemed?  Webster says, “to free from captivity by payment of ransom.”  Hosea bought Gomer back for one-half the price of a slave, fifteen shekels (Hosea 3:2).  Not so for you and me.  Precious blood was spilled so we could know redeeming love.  God’s love for us was so great that even before we were born, He bought us out of slavery.  He calls us His beloved and longs to bring us back to Himself.  There is no greater love.  Romans 3:23 says, “. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but we must read on, (24) “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Do you remember young love, new love?  Just to be in the same room with that special someone made your pulse race until you were sure others could hear the beating of your heart.  When words were not spoken, silence defined love you both could understand.  The simplest touch brought warmth and calm.  As we begin this new year, let me encourage each of us to rekindle our first love, the love of God.  New means, “having just come into being or been made.”  Today is a new day.  This is a new month.  This is a new year.  God desires to romance us with His very presence.  Dee Brestin writes in, Falling in Love with Jesus, “Romance means absorbing the beauty of life:  conversation, atmosphere, places, and surroundings.  It means increasing our awareness of the fragrance of pine trees, freshly ground coffee, and sheets drying on the line; hearing the music of waves, children’s laughter, and the rain drumming on the roof; seeing the signature of God on His creation.  It means drinking the gift of life to the dregs.  All to be enjoyed, all to be taken in (17).” 

I want to share with you just a few of the excerpts from the devotionals of our book club.  While you may not have read Redeeming Love, and I hope you will soon, I believe there are beautiful reminders to God’s women of our journey to the unconditional love of God.

Pursuit (Chapter 1-6)
What would cause the God of heaven to chase after us, not giving up or letting go?  John writes to the believers in 1 John 4:10, “This is love:  not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (NIV).  I can shout AMEN to that!  Loving God is not the miracle.  His love for me, with my unfaithfulness, is beyond marvel.  God was willing to sacrifice the very best of heaven to court me back to Him.

How do we respond to God’s pursuit of us?  Not the way you might think.  It seems that we have our own struggle with insanity.  Sadly, we’re too comfortable with the godless and too casual with the godly.  We are often careless and reckless with divine love.  We assume that either God does not know our sin or He does not care, and we are wrong on both counts.  Then, we selfishly pursue the blessings of intimacy without embracing its call for devotion (No Love So Sure, 29, Paul Francis Lanier).

God says to us, I don’t care how you got here or where you have been.  Hope is not an unattainable quest.  Freedom is not a mirage.  Sometimes we try to go back to the known—what I do is what I am.  God says I want to know you, not what you can do.

Where are you right now?  Do you think hope and freedom cannot come to you?  They are for someone else?  God pursues you and me.  He will keep coming back.  Calvin Miller writes in Jesus Loves Me:

Is the night too cold, he is the fire.
Is the mountain too high, he is the ascent.
Are the days dark, he is the path.
Is the night void of hope, he has come to spend the night.

There’s A Little Bit of Morning Outside (Chapter 11)
In Genesis chapter one, we see the creation of evening and morning:  (3) “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  (4) God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  (5) God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’  And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (NIV).I don’t know about you, but I struggle with darkness.  There is always a light burning in our home.  Several years ago while struggling with many sleepless nights, I found myself dreading the evening and what it would bring—or not.  I noticed in the above scripture that God said the light was good.  He didn’t say that about the darkness.  Our pain seems greater in the darkness.  The hours seem longer in the darkness.  The silence seems louder in the darkness.

Sometimes what seems hidden in the daylight comes screaming to us while we sleep.  The ones we run from chase after us in the darkness.  Hebrews 13:5, 6 tells us, “. . . ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?’” (NIV).  Psalm 30:5, is a beautiful reminder, “. . . weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (NIV).

Are you living a nightmare?  Does your past chase you in the night?  Does the silence scream out to you, but no one else can hear?  Hold onto Psalm 4:8, “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (NIV).

Randy Phillips wrote a song several years ago entitled, There’s a Little Bit of Morning Outside.  The chorus reads:

There’s a little bit of morning outside
There’s a new beginning in the sky
It’s been awhile, but now the time is right
To spread your wings and fly
Silent heart, sing a brand new song
The darkest time is just before the dawn
Weary soul arise, wipe the pain from your eyes
There’s a little bit of morning outside.

Surely You Will Love Me Now (Chapter 17)
I am a PK (preacher's kid).  As far back as I can remember, Grace and Gratitude hung in the kitchen or dining room area of our home.  They were like the wooden spoon and fork Mom would hang.  Once all of these were in place, the parsonage became home. 

“Grace” is a 1918 photograph by Eric Enstrom.  It depicts an elderly man, Charles Wilden, with his hands folded, saying a prayer over a simple meal.  A similar picture featuring an elderly woman praying at a table is called “Gratitude” and was photographed by Jack Garren.

If I can play on these words, I have gratitude for grace.  What exactly am I thankful for?  A gift I did not deserve.  Don’t get me wrong!  I love gifts.  But it seems incomprehensible that I can receive the love of God without earning it.  Paul, in writing to the church at Ephesus says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10, NIV). 

Sadly, I spent many of my early years trying to earn the love of God.  Doing replaced being and I allowed myself to become physically and spiritually exhausted all in the name of “loving God.”  At the age of 28, I had an encounter with God that caused me to see His love for me was not that of a domineering tyrant waiting on me to “blow it,” but of a loving Father who simply loved the daughter He created.  How liberating that moment was.  Although I had received salvation at the age of 6, for the first time in my life I truly felt free.

I have a room in my home that is consistently called the gift room.  I tell myself when I make the purchases that they are to be saved for Christmas.  However, I just can’t wait.  If I see anything that I think my sons, my daughters-in-law, or my grandsons might enjoy, I usually buy it.  It doesn’t have to be anything big, just something special to them.  They don’t have to do anything to “deserve” the gifts.  They are my children and my grandchildren and nothing brings me greater joy than being generous with them.  Not to over simplify, but I see my heavenly Father in much the same way.  He loves me so much that He can hardly wait to bless me with every good gift that He has for me.  “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

The gift of God’s love is ours today.  Grace and gratitude, although they may not hang on your wall, hide them in your heart and enjoy the gift. 

Through these words, I hope you have seen just a glimpse of God’s love for us.  He consistently pursues us.  He is ever near giving constant care, even in the darkest hours.  His desire is to bless us with every good thing.

We all have a story, although we start with “Once upon a time,” there are doubtless few palaces, princes, handmaidens, horse-drawn carriages, or other “story book” images that fill our pages.  There have been kind words, hugs, and affirmation.  There have also been hurt and pain.  No matter the good or the bad, each chapter has brought us to where we are today.  The good news is we are still here.  Our story is not complete.  God has pen in hand.

Jeremiah 31:3:  “. . . I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”

(If you have read Redeeming Love and would like to receive all 30 devotionals, please contact me at kathy@lacog.org.)

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