Go-o-o-o-llee!

Go-o-o-o-llee is probably the first thing that strikes us when we hear the name Gomer. Who could forget the eponymous personification of innocence as portrayed by Jim Nabors. Wide-eyed and amazed at the world around him… He never seemed to lose his innocence. But there is a Gomer we don’t too often think of who is introduced to us in the Old Testament book of Hosea. This Gomer was not a wide-eyed innocent, but was rather a jaundiced-eyed, worldly-wise woman. Her faithfulness was fleeting and she was, in the vernacular of a more circumspect time, a woman of easy virtue.

God instructed Hosea to marry her and to seek her out and bring her back when she strayed. This was at a physical and emotional cost to Hosea, but God wanted to illustrate how He loved His people and how they responded. As we think of Gomer, we can perhaps imagine how she looked. Our preconceptions may illuminate our minds with the image of a woman who was alluring and seductive and desired by countless men; or we may see the image of a woman who is tired and fading who has traded on her charms for too long and has little stock in trade remaining. Both views are comforting, as they paint a picture far removed from our lives. There is a way, though, that we may know exactly what she looked like. Gaze into the mirror hanging on your wall, and there she is.

You may protest that you are not like her. Of course you’ve had your failings, but they’re outweighed by the positives. In doing this, you join the rest of us in excusing ourselves based on the imagined gravity of action. You see, it is not a scale that we must balance (the ancient Egyptians believed this). It is instead, if you will, a matter of geography. Imagine a map, with a big star in the middle saying God is here. Now where are you on that map? Wherever you are on that map, if you’re not with God, you have strayed just as Gomer did. We focus on the scenery in Gomer’s tableau, and fail to grasp that it isn’t where she is that is the issue, but where she isn’t. She’s not with God. If Sunday dawns beautifully and you invest your time at the golf course, or if the weather is miserable so you stay in – the issue isn’t where you are but where you are not. This map is not just geographical, it is emotional and spiritual as well.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. His sheep know Him and follow Him. If even one should stray, He will seek it and bring it back. But notice His focus! It isn’t on where the sheep was, but where the sheep should be. If you are following Him, where you were when He found you is meaningless to Him. It should be meaningless to us, too. Go-o-o-o-llee! His grace is good.