After the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days. Hosea 3:5 

Have you ever come to realize that a love you once spurned was really precious? That often happens. I can decide how love should look and in so doing, I close myself off from other ways love can be expressed. It isn’t until it’s gone that I look back with a bigger and better perspective.  Then I am humbled as I remember one tender gesture after another and think, “How could I have been so blind?” 

Hosea revealed that Israel will one day return to the Lord and they will come trembling because of His goodness toward them. 

Trembling becomes a child of God.  It’s good to take a deep breath and exhale with wonder and humility.  But trembling has an enemy.  It’s entitlement.  With arrogance, we decide how God should function in His role as a Father.  We decide what He should give us and from what things He should save us.  

I remember a family friend saying to me, as he watched his wife suffer from a debilitating disease, “I take better care of my dog than God takes care of my wife.” Perhaps you’ve felt this level of disappointment with God.  I have.  Hindsight and wisdom prove to be effective teachers. We look back and are usually able to see the ways God loved and cared for us. 

How do we surmount the obstacle of disappointment so that we can tremble again at His goodness?  We pursue God relentlessly, even through our tears. The glory of Jesus will surprise us again. An ordinary day will be turned upside down again as the eternal penetrates the temporal.  God’s glory will fill our field of vision again.  We’ll know it is a holy moment.  We’ll take our shoes off.  And, in the afterglow, we’ll tremble in the memory of it.

I review, I remember, and I tremble as I finger the hem of Your garment. Amen