Continuing with my romance tropes in the Bible series from a little while ago, I want to discuss the “second chance at love” trope. I believe this trope originated in the human heart because of our “second chance at love” with God. People love the concept of two people who were formerly in love being reconciled. One of the many stories that includes this trope occurs in the book of Hosea, and was recently rewritten into the wildly popular tale, Redeeming Love.
The story goes that an upright man is called by the Lord himself to make the extremely uncomfortable decision to marry a woman who was caught in perversion and immorality in the worst kind of way. He and the woman begin to build their relationship, a beautiful picture of restoration, and they even have three kids together. Then, tragically, the woman walks away from the man who loved her so well to go back to her life of unfaithfulness and self-destruction. But the faithful man once again redeems his wife, and their relationship becomes whole once again. The two get a second chance at love, or arguably a third depending on how you look at it.
God called his prophet Hosea to marry this woman and they forgive her betrayal because it was a picture of God’s relationship to his people. At the time, the people of God, who he had called out of their sin and forgiven repeatedly, were once again worshipping other gods and ignoring the words of the one true God. Yet, he called them back into relationship with him again. Each of us can relate to this woman.
We have walked away from God at various times to do whatever felt good and right to us, knowing that we were dishonoring and disrespecting the God who sacrificed to redeem us from our own mistakes. Still, he loves us so well.
Romans 5:8 says , “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Just like Gomer from the book of Hosea, we were not exactly a catch. He loves us despite our failings, not because we have earned it. We can be full of gratitude and confidence in the unfailing love of God, knowing that he has returned to us second, third, and seventy-seven times.
According to Word Studies in the New Testament, the original Greek is in the present tense, showing that God continuously establishes his love for sinners at its most striking manifestation. Just allowing us to be reconciled to him through Christ is a constant and breath-taking picture of his love. And in the next two verses, we are reminded that we were God’s enemies, and had to be “reconciled” to him. The term reconciled means “to exchange” and referenced exchanging hostility for peace (Word Studies in the New Testament).
Just as Hosea made peace with his wife, and so many high school sweethearts have made peace and restored their love in our favorite stories, God has made his peace with us. I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:11, which says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”