Though, and Not After

"Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel." (Hosea 3:1)

It is one thing to forgive someone who comes crawling back and asks for it. It is another thing entirely to get up and go find them, to make the first move toward the very person who did the wounding, to walk out the door after someone who left and is not sorry and is at this moment in another man's house. Everything in us protests. It is not my fault. I stayed. I did not leave.

And God says, go again.

There is a way to tell who is the more spiritual person in a broken relationship, and it is not who is right. It is who, in humility, moves first toward reconciliation, for that is the one who sees more worth in the relationship than in the verdict. That is Jesus exactly. He was never once wrong in an argument in his life, and he was always the first one down the road. He does not stand at the far end of your repentance with his arms crossed, waiting for you to complete it. He comes to meet you while you are still a long way off.

Watch the small word in the verse. Love her, God says, as I love Israel, though they turn to other gods. Not after they turn back. Though they are still turning away. At this point in the story Gomer has done nothing to earn a second look. There is no scene where she comes to her senses first. Grace moves before the change, not after it.

So you do not have to fix it before you come. You do not have to arrive sorry enough. Turn toward him even now, in mid-flight, and you will find he was already coming toward you.