Hosea 6

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.

 

After two days He will revive us;

On the third day He will restore us,

That we may live in His presence.

 

Let us acknowledge the LORD;

Let us press on to acknowledge Him.

 

As surely as the sun rises,

He will appear;

He will come to us like the winter rains,

Like the spring rains that water the earth.

 

If you only knew what these verses mean to me.  When we were overseas, we celebrated our first Easter with our teammates in the mountains.

 

It was rough for me.  I just felt lost.  Early that morning, Dan and I sat on a bench outside the hotel cabin.  It was still dark, mountains surrounding us.

 

 

 

I was going through a time in my walk with Him when I wasn’t sure how to organize all my thoughts.  We had learned about His glory and how we are blessed to bless others.  All right, true things.  But I was beginning to feel…disconnected.

 

A few weeks before, I had been reading an intense book about His sovereignty.  At one point, I closed the book and started to cry.  I looked up at the ceiling and go,

 

“I just want to know that You like me!”

 

I wish I could explain the way He ministered to me, even in the hours following that outburst.  He knew I needed to know He was near.  That He made me like I am for a reason.  That He thinks I’m funny.  That He understands why I do what I do.  That He hurts when I hurt.  That He’s a good Father.

 

So fast forward to this Easter morning.  Those same feelings were creeping back in.  Lost and, honestly, self-pitying.

 

Dan started to pray.  I don’t remember everything He talked to God about, but I remember wishing my heart lined up with it.  But it just didn’t.  So I asked Him,

 

“Would You come to us this morning?  Would You please meet me in my sadness?  Would You show me again that You are here?”

 

There was nothing immediate.  I didn’t feel instantaneously peaceful.  We just continued to sit there.  We sang some songs.

 

Then as soon as the sun started to rise, it began to rain.  So lightly.

 

And don’t you love the way sun looks through rain?

 

I smiled, but didn’t think too much about it.

 

After a few minutes, we headed back into our teammates’ room in the hotel.  His parents were visiting from America and his dad was planning on sharing from the Word for our celebration that morning.

 

He opened right up to these verses.

 

As surely as the sun rises,

He will appear;

He will come to us like the winter rains,

Like the spring rains that water the earth.

 

And there it was.  My answer.  I felt so warmed.

 

I might have held it together, but our teammate’s dad asked us,

 

“What is your most memorable Easter?”

 

When it was my turn to speak, the tears came.

 

I told them about how I was feeling.  Missing big, corporate worship.  Missing significant relationships.  Feeling lost.

 

Then I mentioned my prayer.  And the rain as the sun rose.  The winter rain.  The spring Easter rain.

 

He was with us.

 

In a point of my deep confusion and loss and loneliness, He showed up for me.  There was nothing I could do to make it happen.

 

All I had to do was ask.

 

Friends, He will come for us.  On the third day, He will restore us.

 

We have all been torn to pieces.  The things we do to each other and the things done to us are real, raw wounds.

 

As a friend read the other day from a seminary textbook, when we sin we aren’t just breaking an impersonal law.  Pay a fine and move on.

 

We are damaging our connection with Him.

 

It hurts Him.  It hurts others.  It violates the Law of Love.

 

True repentance means returning to Him so He can bind up our wounds.  They’re gaping, you know.  We cannot pretend they’re not there.

 

But instead of walking around, bloody and avoiding deep connection with each other, we take them to our Abba.  Then we come to one another in humility.  Broken but together.

 

He promises He will revive us.  His coming is as sure as the sun rising and the seasons changing.  There is nothing we can do that will stop His wild love for us.

 

Will You let Him?