Redeeming Love

About a year ago, the fabulous Pizo sent me a book by Francine Rivers, called Redeeming Love - a story based on the Old Testament book of Hosea. Initially, Vianney and I decided to read the book together but somehow we never managed to read it more than once every few weeks, usually because of time constraints and/or my being too tired to read.

This week I decided to just go ahead and read it as I’m having an incredibly slow week, unable to get up for more than an hour or so at a time. As I’m working my way through this incredible book, I’m beginning to realise that there’s a reason I’m laid up at this time. I rarely lie in bed during the day - only ever when I feel simply too weak to do anything. It feels to me that God has firmly encouraged me to stay put, be still and hear from Him through this powerful book.

Whenever I’ve given thought to the whole concept and story of the book of Hosea, I’ve been amazed at the faith and perseverance of God’s servant, in the face of such betrayal and rejection. I know a couple of my closest friends have lived through their partners’ adultery and consequent rejection, and it seems to me to be among the most painful experiences life can throw at you. Hosea must have known the pain he was potentially laying himself open to when He obeyed God and married a prostitute; that, in itself is quite an ask, but there is of course more. It would perhaps be an ‘edgy,’ slightly alternative biblical fairy tale if that were the end of it: Hosea marries Goma and she sees the light, remaining faithful to him forevermore. Unfortunately, there is so much more betrayal and pain yet to come, including adultery and even children by other men.

The story speaks to us on a human level and would be hard enough to swallow if it were simply a story with a moral, but it is so much more than that and, as I’m reading Redeeming Love that is what is bringing me to my knees, causing tears to well up and forcing me to stop reading and acknowledge the deeper meaning. God’s love for us as His wayward children is just immense, it is overwhelming and the message running through the heart of both the book of Hosea and “Redeeming Love” is one of sheer mercy and grace.

I am still only about a third of the way through this haunting novel but I’m constantly hungry for more, in a way that I wouldn’t normally be when reading any old story. It is so easy to look at some people our society belittles and see them through the same human eyes as everyone else, but this book is revealing to me the tenderness with which Jesus views those very same people, the incredible love He has for every single person, even when they are spitting at Him and throwing His adoration back in His face.

Before sitting down to write this, I had just finished a chapter which I think portrays perfectly everything I said in the last paragraph about grace. ‘Angel’ (the character based on Goma, Hosea’s wife) has tried to leave Michael Hosea (I think the character reference is fairly obvious for that one!) to return to her old life, despite the constant, unceasing love and care he has showered on her. He spent months in earlier chapters, begging her to leave her life of prostitution and come and be his wife, after God told him she would be the woman he would marry. She refused to go with him on every single occasion. He finally gave up, dejected and confused, until one day he came back against his will, only because God would not let him rest until he obeyed Him. When Michael arrived at the brothel he found ‘Angel’ close to death, following a beating from her manager when she demanded to be given what she earned over the years because she wanted out. Hosea took her home and over a period of many months nursed her back to strength and health, taking care of her and teaching her simple things she had never been taught in her younger years, such as cooking, basic farming and ironing; enough skills to live the life he wanted for them both. As ‘Angel’ tries to leave him and return to the brothel for what she‘s owed, he catches up to her along her way to try to convince her to stay:

“It began to rain. Michael was worried. She would be soaked and cold and probably frightened. It was clear she didn’t know where she was going.
He found her shoes. “Lord, she’s heading away from the road.” He galloped to the top of the knoll and looked for her. He could see her in the distance, walking across a field. He cupped his hands and shouted to her.
She stopped and turned. He could tell even at this distance by the set of her shoulders and the tilt of her head that she had made up her mind to leave him. He rode slowly toward her. When he was within a hundred yards, he dismounted and walked toward her. Her face was dirty, her shirtwaist torn. He saw bloodstains on her skirt. The look in her eyes made him hold his tongue.
“I’m leaving,” she said.
“Barefooted?”
“If I have to.”
“Let’s talk it over.” When he put his hand beneath her elbow, she drew back sharply and slapped him in the face.
Michael stumbled back a bit, astonished. He wiped the blood off his mouth and stared at her. “What was that for?”
“I said I’m leaving. You can drag me back, and I’ll leave again. However long it takes you to get it through your thick head.”
Michael stood silent. His anger burned hotter than his cheek, but he knew anything he said now he would later regret.
“Do you hear me, Michael? This is a free country. You can’t make me stay.” He still said nothing. “You don’t own me no matter what you paid the Duchess!”
Patience, God said. Well, patience was wearing thin. Michael wiped the blood off his lip. “I’ll give you a ride to the road.” He walked to his horse.
Angel stood, mouth ajar. He glanced back at her. She lifted her chin but didn’t move. “You want a ride or not?” Michael said.
She went to him. “So you’ve finally come to your senses.”
He lifted her to the saddle and then swung up behind her. When he reached the road, he took her arm and slid her off the horse. She stood looking up at him, bemused. He unlooped the canteen and tossed it to her. She caught it against her chest. He took the shoes out of his coat pocket and dropped them at her feet.
“That way is Pair-a-Dice,” he said. “It’s thirty miles, uphill all the way, and Magowan and the Duchess are waiting for you at the end of it.” He nodded in the opposite direction. “That way is home. One mile downhill, fire and food and me. But you’d better understand something right now. If you come back, we’re picking up where we left off and we’re still playing by my rules.”
He left her standing alone in the road.

It was after dark when she opened the cabin door. Michael glanced up from his reading but didn’t say anything. She stood there for a moment, pale, strained and covered with road dust. Mouth tight, she came in.
“I’ll wait for Spring,” she said bitterly and dropped his empty canteen on the table. She sank down on a stool as though every muscle in her body hurt, but she remained too stubborn to seek the warmth of the fire.
From the look on her face, it was clear she was waiting for him to mock her. Michael got up and ladled stew from the iron pot. He took a biscuit from the pan. Setting both before her, he smiled ruefully. A small frown flickered across her brow as she glanced up.
Obviously famished, she ate. He poured her coffee. She sipped at it while watching him fill a pan with hot water. When he leaned his elbow on the mantle and looked at her, she lowered her head and went back to eating her supper.
“Sit over here,” he said when she finished. She was so tired she could hardly get up, but she did what he told her. He knelt and set the pan of water at her feet and eased the shoes off.
All the way back, she had imagined him gloating and taunting, rubbing her face in her own broken pride. Instead, he knelt before her and washed her dirty, blistered feet. Throat burning, she looked down at his dark head and struggled with the feelings rising in her. She waited for them to die away, but they wouldn’t. They stayed and grew and made her hurt even more.
His hands were so gently. He took such care. When her feet were clean, he kneaded her aching calves. He cast the dirty water outside and poured more, setting the pan in her lap. He took her hands and washed them as well. He kissed her stained, scratched palms and worked salve in. Then he wrapped them with warm bandages.
And I hit him. I drew his blood….
Angel shrank back ashamed. When he raised his head, she looked into his eyes. They were blue, like a clear spring sky. She had never really noticed before. “Why do you do this for me?” she said thickly. “Why?”
“Because, for some of us, one mile can be farther to walk than thirty.”

I wrote the above (well, not the quoted passage obviously!!) about three weeks ago, and have since finished reading Redeeming Love. It continued to move me to tears right through to the last words. God has spoken powerfully to me and taken me on a journey as I have read; that is not something that happens often with me and novels, but I guess it’s not about the story this time, it’s what God is saying about reality within it that has hit me. Many of the core themes of Redeeming Love may not have resonated with me had I read this book a year ago, or even six months ago, but in the early days of this new season in my own life, I am certain that God is branding them onto my heart for a purpose.

One such resounding theme of this book, (and the book of Hosea), is selflessness. Hosea knows full well, in both books, that he must love his wife the way that Jesus loves us; that he must love her in spite of her hatred of him and her hardness towards him. He must love her until it physically hurts him, and then still let her go when God says it’s time. He must love her and love God enough to trust Him that in His perfect timing, He will finish the work of salvation that He is doing in her, and bring her back to him for the last time. He must love her enough to be willing to give up everything he has placed value on in human terms, and put her needs and her salvation first.

It is so hard to live this way even for a day, but the challenge to Christians is to live our entire lives this way - putting others first, showing them God’s love without ceasing, however much it costs us.

And the crazy thing is, it would be difficult enough to do this for someone we consider worthy of it - someone who is easy to love - but this book doesn’t start with something so easy. No, it makes it plain and clear that we need to be this selfless and loving and giving to even the darkest, dirtiest and scariest of people. Throughout the novel, prostitutes are referred to as “soiled doves”; what a picture. We are all soiled doves in our own ways, originally pure and perfect but easily tainted by the world and human nature. The message of Redeeming Love, Hosea and ultimately the Bible, is that God loves us as though we were still those pure, white doves. Because of Jesus.

And that is amazing grace.