Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. – Hosea 6:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 9, 2016): Hosea 6

Elementary Educational theorist Bill Ayers writes that “Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.” And it is not just your kids that are in need of that. All of us need to know that we are loved and supported unconditionally for who we are. In fact, if that is not known, then any correction or discipline is usually counter-productive. But that often seems hard. And the primary reason for the difficulty is that there appears to be something deep inside of us that wants to make sure that the person realizes that they are wrong. And, of course, that there are consequences to any error (which life seems to hand out to us without any action from anyone else.)

Personally, I am pretty good at knowing when I have blown it – a realization that is all too common in my life. But what really hurts is when the people around me decide to pile on – another altogether too common an experience. People often seem to feel the need to make sure that I know that I am in the wrong – even after I have already admitted that I have made a mistake. What I need I seldom seem to receive is to be loved through my error.

But maybe I am. There is also something else at work here, both in adults and in children. When I know that I am in the wrong, I often can’t feel the love that is all around me. Because, at least in my mind, I don’t deserve that love. There have been several points in my life when I have known that I was wrong, and was loved, and yet I could not feel the love.

Hosea speaks to Israel about God as being the one who has disciplined Israel. He has torn them apart, and he has injured them. And in Jewish thought, that is very true – even if it sounds a little absurd from our cultural place of reference. Because God is all-powerful, he could have stepped in and stopped the pain at any time – even when that pain was brought on by the actions of the nation itself, rather than by the hand of God. But the cause of the pain isn’t Hosea’s point. Hosea wants Israel to know that even though they will go through pain, allowed by the hand of God, God has no intention of abandoning them to that pain. He may have allowed the pain, doing nothing to stop it, but he is also willing to actively bring healing to the nation. Hosea knows that in the moment of self-recrimination it might be hard for Israel to feel that healing, but he needs them to understand that the healing is there never-the-less.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 7