LOVING THE UNLOVELY

Chapter Ten:  The Beginning

by Tricia K. Brown

Hos had no idea how much a pimp charged for the services of a prostitute, but he knew the sum he was given was ridiculous. Still, he never flinched.  He gently laid G down and whispered, “I’m coming back, G. Hang in there.”

The pimp laughed cruelly.

Hos walked back to his car and drove away.

When he got home, he grabbed his checkbook and his savings register. One glance, and he knew. This was the Lord.

He drove to the bank and withdrew all of the money he had from both accounts.  Hos looked at the thick white envelope full of cash. Here was his grocery money, his utility payment, his back-up fund, and his entire life savings. It was everything he had, and it was the very amount, to the penny, that Hos needed. 

When he arrived back at the alley, G was right where he had left her. Her pimp sat cross-legged beside her smoking a cigarette.

Hos paid the man, and he took his bride back home.

Healing was a slow process. The physical wounds were the easiest. Emotional and spiritual healing took much longer.   It was obvious that G would never be the same.  She was scarred, indeed, both inside and out, but the scars served to remind her of her mistakes and of the love of the one who had saved her from them.

Sweaty and trembling, she went through detox, and Hos repeated, “I love you, G. I love you. Never leave me again.”

Driving home from the dentist, her mouth swollen and sore, he would tell her, “I love you, G. I paid everything for you. I love you, G. Never leave me again.”

When she would wake up from another nightmare, crying in fear, Hos would hold her and remind her, “I love you, G. You are safe with me. Never leave me again.”

Gazing at her across the dinner table, as his family grabbed one another’s hand, he would lean close and whisper, “I love you, G. Stay with me.  Don’t ever go back to that lifestyle.  Don’t ever wander into the arms of another man.  Stay loyal to me, G.  I promise I will always be loyal to you.” 

G knew that it was true.

There were no secrets in their church, no secrets in this community. So, just as every other aspect of their lives had been a public spectacle, this was as well.  Despite the pain, Hos was obedient to the Lord and preached about it from the pulpit. He didn’t humiliate G, but he did tell the story—openly and honestly.  But Hos never cast himself as the hero. Instead, he told his congregation of another lover, One much greater than he. 

“We are all like G,” he said. “Our Savior has wooed us to Himself. Despite our wickedness, our unloveliness, Christ searched for us when we were lost and called us to be His bride. Laying down His life, He paid the ultimate price so that we can be His own.  Yet, time and again, we run from Him. And we head right back into the muck and the mire of sin and suffer the consequences of our actions.”

“Our sins only bring us down, but God is willing to forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him. He loves you; He loves us, and His love knows no bounds. Why should we be like prostitutes, selling ourselves to the things of this world? God wants to heal us from our unfaithfulness. He is the One who answers our prayers. He is the One who cares for you. He has paid the price for us. We are His. How will we then choose to live—as a beloved bride or an estranged wife?

Silence hung like a thick blanket over the church.

Hos glanced at his wife sitting on the front pew, a look of peace and contentment radiating from her, and she smiled.

Then he looked out at his congregation, unusually quiet and still. Maybe, maybe it was his imagination.

But finally, he thought, they seemed to understand. 

A Note About This Story

While this story is fiction, it is based on the true Old Testament story of the prophet Hosea and his prostitute-turned-wife, Gomer. As portrayed in Loving the Unlovely, God used this couple’s story to present a living illustration to His people about their unfaithfulness. The entire book, as well as much of the Old Testament, outlines the tendency of God’s people to leave God in search for and service of other gods. It was a much-repeated pattern.

God loved and chose them. They worshiped and promised their allegiance. Then, after some time, they would leave Him and suffer the consequences. They would eventually repent, and, out of His deep love from them, God would rescue and restore them. They would promise their allegiance again, and the cycle would continue.

Unfortunately, we Christians today don’t do much better. The Bible tells us, and most of us would agree, that we are sinners (Romans 3:23). The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23), and there is nothing we can do about it. But John 3:16 tells us, “For this is how God loved the world; He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” However, like Gomer, those of us who have confessed our sins and promised our faithfulness to the Lord (Romans 10:9), sometimes find ourselves wandering back into our previous patterns of sin.

I hope that the story of Hos and G (or Hosea and Gomer) gives us a visual picture of just how heartbreaking and self-destructive this kind of behavior really is. It is my prayer that if you don’t know the Lord as your Savior and friend, you come to Him before it’s too late. If you know Him but have strayed, then I pray you return to Him today. In Hosea 14:4 and 8, the Lord says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds…I am the One who answers your prayers and cares for you.”

God loves us, and He, alone, is the perfect Lover of our souls.