Hosea and Gomer

The girls and I watched Masterpiece Theatre's Jane Eyre last night. Emotional pornography at its finest, and as usual I wanted to figure out why it is. We care for Jane and Rochester because they are obviously made for each other. But the thing that really gets under our skin is the tragedy. Passion tested, thwarted and delayed. And what keeps us coming back, like junkies, is the happy ending— where the waiting and the longing is outlasted, finally overmastered by joy and consummation. We probably need a good 12-step program to get us off chick flicks.
But there's a bigger issue here. We long for the agony and the ecstasy of these romances, a.) to make sure we still have a pulse; b.) because we want to be seen and desired like that; and c.) because we all, male and female, long to be worth fighting for. Jane says she loves Rochester because he was the first to see her and to love what he saw.

Guess what? The first to see us and love what He saw is still fighting for us. It's always risky attributing human emotions to God, but since He came up with the metaphor of marriage I will be bold. Imagine every yearning we feel, every throb, every desire— full blown and draconian. Add to it holiness and total purity of emotion and sensation. Then multiply it by infinity. There is the shadow of Jesus' desire for the Church. For you. For me. He has no need to take lessons from Charlotte Bronte about romantic tension: He's engaged to a girl He's totally besotted with— and whom He can't be with. It's not an “unsuitable match” based on rank or race or money or distance; it's much worse. Though He loves her, her nature is totally opposed to His. And cost Him what it may He is man enough, true enough to righteousness, that He will not link Himself fully to a woman who is not His equal in that righteousness. He is secure enough in Himself to wait. He protects her, provides for her, and teaches her faithfully, sends her letters, speaks to her over the miles, will even touch her with healing and comforting hands. But He cannot have her till she's become like Him. It makes my stomach flip! Think how He must have reveled in His relationship with Enoch. For 365 years Enoch walked with Him in righteousness and holiness so profound that God finally couldn't take it anymore and just took him. The rest of us look more like this in relation to Jesus: (thanks to my cousin Gregory for the insight, and pardon the condensing of it)

See the stone set in your eyes

See the thorn twist in your side

I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate

On a bed of nails she makes me wait

And I wait without you

With or without you

Through the storm we reach the shore

You give it all but I want more

And I'm waiting for you

With or without you

I can't live

With or without you

And you give yourself away

And you give

And you give

And you give yourself away

My hands are tied

My body bruised, shes got me with

Nothing to win and

Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away

And you give

And you give

And you give yourself away

I cant liveWith or without you
—U2, 1987—

This sacred romance, as it has been called by smarter folks than I, is what emotional pornography is trying to imitate and never quite pulls off— like pasteboard pearls. But when it springs from the heart of God, it is not emotional pornography. Isn't it good to know that behind the bastard shadow is the real Son?

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” (Jer 31:3b)