Dear Broken,

Life isn’t pretty.

It’s jam-packed with messes that you’ve made.

There are moments you wish you could forget.

There’s something right now you are tempted to do.

But you know you shouldn’t.

You have scars from past mistakes and hurts.

It has made you look more and more worthless.

I know you feel at war between right and wrong.

I feel it every day.

We all do.

Each one of us in this world.

Meet Gomer.

She felt the intense pull, too.

Then she met Hosea.

This isn’t a story about how marriage & the right person make your life perfect.

It’s a story of never-ending-faithful love.

It’s a story I need to hear over and over again.

Here it is:

Gomer was a city girl.

She lived for the thrill of anything new.

She lived for anything that would take away the pit in her stomach that she felt any time she was alone.

It haunted her throughout the day.

An aching desire to be known. To be loved, deeply.

She ran after whatever would dull the pain.

Men seemed to do it best, and she got paid.

It was better than laying alone at night with the pain haunting her thoughts.

One day, she met Hosea. He was unlike any man she had ever met. He actually wanted to marry her! A committed man. Maybe that would forever take the pain away.

A few months into it, she realized it did not.

So, she went back to her old ways. At night she would sneak out to go meet other lovers. Alright, they didn’t really love her, but it did push the pain of loneliness away for a little while.

She got really deep into it all. People on the streets called her a prostitute.

One day she reached her lowest low. There she was, with chains around her wrists. Heavy chains. Chains that cut into her skin, leaving a permanent mark. But that wasn’t what hurt the most. Her eyes shut to try to drown out the voices of the men around her who were offering bid after bid for her. Nothing had ever hurt as much as this. Her heart felt completely numb. It was too deep a pain. And she, one of the most despised and rejected people in the city, would have to bear the pain alone. She was now too dirty, too messed up. No one could ever truly love her.

All of a sudden everything around her was quiet. She slowly opened her eyes to see why. All the men had turned from looking at her. They were staring at a man who had a stack of hundreds in his hand. “I will take her.”

Gomer’s eyes opened fully as she realized who the man was. Hosea! Why? Did he even recognize her?

She looked into his eyes and he looked back at her with a love so tender that she closed her eyes again and looked away.

He could not possibly be looking at her that way. Not after all the pain she caused him. Not after how dirty she was.

She heard footsteps and her body tensed. Gentle, strong hands reached out and picked her up. Again her eyes opened. It was Hosea.

“Gomer,” he said softly, “I have bought you for a high price. You are mine.”

Tears streamed down her face as she whispered, “No. How can you want me back? I have run from you not once, but several times. Why would you pay such a price for me? I am nothing. Look at me. These scars will not fade. I have a title here and it is not one of honor. You are good and known as that. Why would you ruin your reputation by taking me back?”

“I have redeemed you not once, but several times. I have paid a high price for you because you are mine and I love you. Return to me. I love you freely. You are honored and loved simply because I have bought you back. You have a new title. You are my beloved.”

As he said this, he took the chains and broke them in half with an axe.

“Never again will you have to wear these. You do not need to bear this weight again. Lean on me. I will carry you home.”

This is a beautiful story.

Why?

Because, dear Broken, this is what Jesus has done for you.

Broken has been your name for as long as you can remember. But then He came into the picture. He redeemed you by trading his life in exchange for yours. He died for your forever freedom. He broke your chains of sin in half so that they could never be used again as your captors. He came to capture you with His perfect love.

Maybe love is not a word in your vocabulary. Perhaps it has ended up cutting your heart like a piece of broken glass.

But this love? You can’t doubt it, because He actually gave up His life for you. That’s a price you can never repay. Accept it. He died so that you would no longer be chained by this sin. He rose from the dead so you could live in the freedom of being His beloved.

And He never gave up on you. Actually, He never will. Because His love is a faithful, never-ending kind of love. He is just waiting for you to say the word. You will then be His forever. And you will no longer be called Broken.

For you are His Beloved.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals {gods} from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and the war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord..And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, “You are my people”; and he shall say, “You are my God.” “