Like the morning mist. There is something mystical and enchanting about the morning mist. I love it. I wake up everyday to a curtain-less vista. My husband and I sleep in a room with glass doors from ceiling to floor, where we intentionally haven’t hung curtains so that every day we can just wake up to whatever the day brings – cloudless sunny days, heavy rain or drizzle, broody skies, lashing wind or gentle breezes, thunder, lightning, or the morning mist.
Most mornings I’ll wake, peak out from my blankets at the weather outside, check the time and then close my eyes and drift off to sleep again for a few more precious, blissful moments. The mist is spectacular and eerie to wake to. It sits on the hills and in the valleys in a beautifully, mysterious way. I would tell my boys when they were young that it was fairyland. There is a fairy-like other-world mystery to it. Often when I wake again, it is gone! It has disappeared! There is no visible sign of it – and I have no idea when it will return.
The nation of Israel’s love was a mystery: it was sweet, beautiful, enchanting, captivating – then gone! Like the morning mist, it would disappear! They would turn their back on God, run to their other lovers, find no satisfaction, and then return again to God in passionate repentance, a sweet closeness, only to disappear again. How can someone maintain a love like that with a contrary, inconsistent people, who feel one thing one day, but the opposite the next, who are present and close today, but turn their back tomorrow?
“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist…” Hosea 6:4
Like the early dew that disappears. In the same way, I will wake on a summer’s morning. If the ground is wet with heavy dew, I often think of the relief and refreshment it gives to a thirsty ground, to the grass and trees and plants I have. We won’t have to water these today. Their thirst has been satiated. The heat of the sun won’t destroy the life in them today. Nerdy I know, to wake up thinking these thoughts…
There is a refreshing, satisfying, drink deep, quenching feel to the early dew. But it
“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is…like the early dew that disappears” Hosea 6:4.
God uses metaphor after metaphor to express the grief in His heart towards Israel’s waywardness. Like a hot oven, they pursue their lusts Hosea 7:6-7. An easily deceived and senseless dove, they flit here and there Hosea 7:11. A prostitute, they give themselves to other lovers. A weathervane, they go wherever the wind blows in pursuit of anything to satisfy Hosea 7:11-16. A faulty bow, they constantly direct their aim at things other than God Hosea 7:16. A wild donkey, they are untameable, unpredictable Hosea 8:9.
“And like a guilty metaphor, God, one moment I can be intimate with You and in those times You are the target of my gratitude and closeness. But in the next moment, I’m so quick to cast this aside when something more alluring catches my eye. Like a willingly wayward Israel, I can put You aside with alarming ease”.
“Oh God, how can You love me when I am so stubbornly contrary? Lord, how do You remain satisfied in love with people, with humanity, who are sweet and refreshing while present, but who disappears so quickly to their other lovers? How do you continue to love us who are so two-minded, who willingly love, but in the very next moment are willingly wayward? Prostituting ourselves with other things? Seeking satisfaction in loves and lovers that cannot satisfy?”
I read the tone in these verses What can I do with you? like one shaking His head in bewilderment. Like one who longs for relationship, gives the best of love, and then watches on puzzled as His lover treats the love given in a non-committal, indifferent way. God, whose love is unconditional, eternal, never gives up, immeasurable, perfect, need-meeting, redeeming, and forgiving, looks on at the ones to whom He has given His love, and mourns, yet… continues to love unfailingly.
“God, in those moments I am with you, do you feel enchanted and captivated by my love like the morning mist? Do you feel satisfied and content, Your thirst satiated by my love like the early dew? Do you delight and enjoy the love I give in those moments that I take time out to think about You, and to enjoy you? Do you drink deep the times my face is turned towards Yours? How can that even be? Oh God, then do you longingly await the next appearing mist or dew-fall when again after I have walked away and found a new lover that takes Your place, I return having found only emptiness? Empty because only You can love me like I need – and so long – to be loved?”
“Oh God, lover of my soul, do not give up. Love me, love me, until that love wins and I find myself forever in its presence – me delighting in You and You in me”.