Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. – Hosea 1:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 10, 2014): Hosea 1

According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, one in three families currently exist without a father. Single parent families, and specifically single mother families may be the most pressing tragedy that our culture is currently facing. As much as we might want to pretend that it doesn’t matter, children have a need for two parents – as well as a cast of others. There are traits in all of us that come from both parents – characteristics that we blend into our own beings, becoming something that has never existed before. And as children, we need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are loved, not by just one parent but by both.

Some of the saddest stories I have heard are about kids from one parent families whose parents have forgotten that their kids need both parents even if when it comes to a point in the marriage when the parents no longer believe that they need each other. That as their children, we are the sum of everything that they are – the good and the bad – and that nothing can change that that does not hurt us. And maybe that effect is multiplied when the child walks away from a parent. The result is a nightmare that is more than a dream – and the pain was very real.

Gomer conceives of a child, a daughter. The daughter is given a strange name – Lo-Ruhamah. We are told that the name means “not loved,” but a more precise translation of the name is “not loved by the father.” And the name is not a reflection on Hosea, because Hosea is not the father. But the problem is that no matter how much Hosea might love Lo-Ruhamah, the love that she needs is from her real father – her real absentee father.

It was a pain the Hosea needed to understand. Standing on the sideline all he could do was experience the pain that God felt as he watched Israel chase after other gods – gods that could never really make up for the love of the Father. It was a tragedy of israel’s own making, and there was nothing that Hosea could do but feel God’s very personal pain.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 2 & 3