Pamela stopped her car in the driveway with a jarring lurch. Her mind was spinning. She had no recollection of the drive home, but the soreness between her legs was a vivid reminder of the previous twelve hours. She glanced up in the rearview mirror and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. 'At least John isn't home,' she thought. 'Saturday morning's are his time at the bagel shop to put the final touches on his Sunday morning sermons.'
Pamela stepped out of her car and walked briskly to the front door. She knew John would be gone for another two hours, but she didn't want to linger. It took her less than thirty minutes to pack the largest suitcase she owned. Fortunately she would only need warm weather clothes at her final destination. She could pack more shoes and outfits.
Pamela sat down in front of her laptop and navigated to her favorite travel site. As she clicked through the options she calculated the time in her head. 'Let's see... a two hour drive to Charlotte, and then the next flight leaves three hours after that and... shit, fifteen hours? With a layover in Miami?' She purchased her ticket and then opened up the Sandals Resort home page and clicked on St. Lucia. Her dream vacation was to rent the Sunset Bluff Millionaire Villas Suite with a private pool sanctuary, on the cliffs, overlooking the Caribbean Sea. 'Wow, am I lucky, only $860 a night right now.' She booked it for a week and figured she could decide what to do after that.
She packed up her laptop and put it over her shoulder. As Pamela pulled her luggage to the front door she took one last look around her house and what was to become her old life. 'My dream of a new life has come to a close,' she thought, 'John can't love someone like me. I was a fool to think it could last.'
As she closed the front door, the tears she had stopped before began to flow down her cheeks.
X x x x x x x x x x x x x
As John drove home he checked his voicemail. "Hey, John, it's Pamela. I wanted to let you know that my sister called and asked if I could come over for a few days. Apparently she's having some personal issues... not sure what they are, but I told her no problem. Anyway, I don't want to interrupt your sermon prep, so I'll give you a call tomorrow after church. Love you."
John continued his drive - his thoughts turning back to the conclusion of Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer. He continued to find it amazing that someone could be married to a woman who kept sleeping around with other men.
He had the same thoughts the next morning as he recapped the previous week's sermon on the prophet Hosea and his wayward wife, Gomer and then continued -
"What comes next in this story isn't clear and we have to read between the lines, but it seems that sometime after the birth of the third child, Hosea and Gomer's marriage fell apart, and Gomer left. Perhaps Gomer left Hosea for the father of her last child—we don't know. Gomer appears to have gone from one man to the next, until somewhere along the way she became the woman of a man who didn't have the means, or the will, to support her. Some other man might have been happy to see his wayward wife fall on such hard times, but not Hosea. We learn that Hosea, in some way or another, found a way to secretly provide for Gomer's support. So while Gomer was living in her adulterous relationship, Hosea was behind the scenes making sure she had clothes, food, and money. At some point Hosea came to the realization that providing for Gomer's needs wasn't going to help unless her heart changed; in fact, it would only enable her to continue her wayward lifestyle, so he made the very difficult decision to cut off her support. In time the consequences she had been protected from began to roll in. Eventually Gomer's lover sold her into slavery, and she discovered the sad truth that so many others have discovered: that often what presents itself as an opportunity for self-fulfillment ends in bondage and despair.
Pastor Jennings took a sip of water, which a Deacon in the church regularly put on the podium for him. He looked out over the congregation and noted that all eyes were riveted to him. Note to self, he thought. People are very interested in sexual content and the deviant exploits of others. He continued -
"Now even though Gomer deserved what she got, this is a sad story. It's sad for Hosea because his family was broken apart and he was robbed of the love for which he longed. It's sad for Gomer because her sin caused her to lose her family and eventually led her to slavery. But of course the real story of this book isn't the story of Hosea and Gomer... it's the story of God and Israel. Hosea's love for Gomer is only a picture of God's love for Israel, because all the while that Israel was unfaithful to God, he was providing for them, and they took his blessings and used them for their idol worship. But it's important for us to recognize that just as Hosea never stopped loving Gomer, NO MATTER HOW LOW SHE SANK, so God never stopped loving Israel, even though he had to stand by and watch them be given over to the terrible consequences of their sin."
As John asked everyone to open their Bibles to Hosea chapter three, and prepared to read, he wondered if he could be as obedient as Hosea.
"Then the LORD said to me, "Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by many other men and is an adulteress. Love here as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods. So I bought her for myself out of slavery for fifteen shekels of silver. Then I said to her, "You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the whore, nor shall you have another man. In the same way, I will be faithful to you."
As he closed his Bible, he looked up and summarized the sermon for the day. Before he launched into his closing comments, he noticed a peculiar looking man hurry towards the back doors. 'Must be someone trying to beat the lunch crowd,' he thought.
"Gomer may have been sold into slavery, but Hosea never forgot her and never stopped loving her, and when God revealed to him that the time was right, Hosea went and redeemed Gomer out of slavery. Now you might be thinking, "Wow, what a wonderful ending for a love story," but it's not the end of the story, because a marriage can't go through what Hosea and Gomer went through without a lot of wreckage and brokenness. Their relationship needed a lot of mending before they could again live together as man and wife. We notice that Gomer, though purchased, was not immediately restored to her former status as a wife, and things would remain that way until her heart changed. The same is true with God and Israel. God allowed Israel to experience the consequences of their unfaithfulness. He allowed them to experience the destruction of their nation, and captivity; and although he purchased them, they have remained in an unrestored condition for all these years.
Is there a personal lesson here for us? Of course... We've seen from the example of Hosea and Gomer that sometimes deeply broken relationships take time to heal. But I want you to know that no matter how horrible your failures may seem to you, God has never stopped loving you, and he will never give up on you. Why? Because he has always known the end from the beginning. Just like Hosea knew before he married Gomer that she would be an unfaithful wife, and just like God knew before he chose Israel that they would be an unfaithful people, so he has always known everything about you, and me; and he chose to love us in spite of what he has always known. Restoration might not happen instantly, but be assured that God has not stopped loving you; and if you have ever known him, he will never abandon you, no matter where your choices may have led you.
Pastor Jennings bowed his head reverently and then nodded towards the minister of music for the closing song, while he headed to the Narthex to great everyone as they exited the service.
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Paul cussed under his breath as he pulled up into the pastor's driveway. "Damn, Bitch! She runs out yesterday and then skips town." Paul knew where Pamela lived and had driven by Saturday night and then again on the way to church. Her car was gone and she never showed up to the Service. 'She screwed me out of screwing her,' he raged... his logic faltering unbeknownst to him.
As he looked down at the padded envelop in his gloved hands the familiar battling duo in his mind showed up.
"Paul, there's no benefit to you by leaving that here. What do you hope to accomplish?"
"Ha! I'll tell you what he's gonna get," the red-faced advisory exclaimed. "Good old fashioned revenge... R-E-V-E-N-G-E."
"Oh, no he won't," the angelic one responded. "Two days from now he'll be feeling... G-U-I-L-T-Y."
Paul shook his head. His face began changing colors as he forgot to breathe. "Ahhh!" he yelled out. "Both of you, go away!" He opened his door and walked as calmly as he could, in the quiet neighborhood, to the front door. He bent over and left the package leaning against the door. As he drove away the little devil jabbed the angel in the backside with his pitchfork. "I win again!"
X x x x x x x x x x x x
John pulled into his driveway at 2:30 pm. A few Deacons and their wives had invited him out to lunch when they heard Pamela was out of town. As he stepped up onto the porch slab from his walkway, he noticed the package leaning against his door. He picked it up and subconsciously continued his key entry into the house. He locked his door and set his keys on the foyer table. On the way into his family room he flipped the package over several times.
"Hmmm, no name or address. I hope it's not an angry member." Everyone was always quick to complain, whether it was the carpet, music or sermon, but in the past few years they typically came via e-mail.
He tore open the manila colored envelope and peered inside. The bubble wrap coated interior held a small square, plastic case. John reached inside and pulled it out. Reading through the clear plastic, it simple said, 'Hawaii TEN-O.' Then his eyes grew wider as he looked below the title. Next to where it said, 'Starring Sierra Gold,' someone had written 'AKA Pamela Jennings.'
John opened the case and underneath the DVD was a small piece of paper, folded over. John opened it and read the two typed lines.
