For years, Donna had to watch Hallmark Channel movies by herself. I just was not interested. In recent years, however, I have learned to enjoy them as much as she. Yes, they can be sappy. Yes, they are formulaic almost to a fault (I pretty much know the outline and timing of events in the stories before even starting.). And, yes, Hallmark has begun to veer off into some themes that really bother me. But here’s the key, I think. We love happy endings, and Hallmark movies always end on a happy note.
Well, that’s something to really like about the story of God and his people. Israel, if they will only turn from their sinful ways, will hear: “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon” (14:4-6). “If they will only return” . . . We know they will. Remember verses from Hosea such as “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’” (2:23) & “Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days” (3:5)?
We know how the story ends for Hosea and Israel. And how about us? John tells us, “I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). We know the end of the story! And so, we rejoice in singing:
How oft, alas! this wretched heart
Has wandered from the Lord,
How oft my roving thoughts depart,
Forgetful of His word.
Yet sovereign mercy calls, “Return;”
Dear Lord, and may I come? . . .
Almighty grace, thy healing power,
How glorious, how Divine!
That can to bliss and life restore
So vile a heart as mine. -- Anne Steele (1760)
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