Advent Week 3 12/16/18 John 3:9-21
As my boys were growing up, my brother Michael often fondly would ask them if they were a Gomer or a Goober. He was referencing names he knew from The Andy Griffith Show of the sixties, and characters who were goofy and dopey, and no, I’m not naming dwarfs, I’m describing the personality of Gomer and Goober Pyle, cousins on the show. They behaved pretty much as their names sounded like they would.
Now, Biblically we have a Gomer, but no Goober that I’m aware of. And the Gomer is a she, the prophet Hosea’s wife, and she is known for playing the harlot, literally (Hosea 1-3). This unfathomable love of God is incredibly demonstrated in Hosea’s love for his unfaithful wife as he is commanded by God to show. I think at the heart of what God is doing through the prophet Hosea is showing how true acts of love become unfathomable when they break through the cold, callous exterior of sin.
Unfathomable love is warm, it perseveres, is often unexpected and is shockingly undeserved. If it’s quick, predictable and viewed as earned, it’s really not love – and it’s actually very fathomable.
It turns out that love is most unfathomable when it’s shown to be consistent, unpredictably meets needs, and is understood to be undeserved. And that kind of a godly love is best seen when a choice has been made to obey a command of God's, rather than a demand being made and met.
Have you ever shown or been shown that kind of unfathomable love?
