"LOVE LINES"

Whether you have been married once, twice or thrice, it is hard to grasp the record for being married the most times is twenty nine (29). Yep, you read that right, two dozen plus five to boot. Exacerbating that amazing fact of the number of times to say “I Do” is the record is held by a Baptist minister. I kid you not.

Glynn “Scotty” Wolfe was a Baptist minister from Blythe, California. He walked this earth eighty nine years and was married twenty nine times to twenty eight different women. His longest marriage lasted eleven years and his shortest was a mere nineteen days before being annulled. These twenty nine marriages to teen-agers, grandmothers, virgins, prostitutes, farm girls, teachers and other professions produced forty children.

Wolfe died penniless in a Los Angeles nursing home in 1997 and no one ever claimed his body. None of the surviving twenty nine wives and none of the forty children attended his burial.

In contrast, celebrities who are usually thought of as having a long “love tooth” as the oldtimers call it, celebrities married the most times are Zsa Zsa Gabor with nine marriages edging out and Larry King and Elizabeth Taylor, both with eight.

Yet, on the other end of the love spectrum in 1945 is Jakob, a 15 year old Jewish boy from Poland confined in a concentration camp. He was tall and thin with a bright smile. Every day, a young girl came by on the other side of the concentration camp fence. She noticed the boy and asked him if he spoke Polish, and he said yes. She said he’d looked hungry and he said he was. She then reached in her pocket and gave him her apple. He thanked her and she went on her way. The next day, she came by again, bringing with her another apple which she gave him. Each day, she walked by the outside of the fence, hoping to see him, and when she did, she happily handed him an apple in exchange for conversation.

One day, he told her not to come by anymore. He told her he was being shipped to another concentration camp. As he walked away with tears streaming down his face, he wondered if he’d ever see her again. She was the only kind soul he’d seen on either side of the fence.

He made it out of the concentration camp, and immigrated to America. In 1957, his friends had fixed him up on a blind date. He had no idea who the woman was. He picked her up and during dinner began talking of Poland and the concentration camp. She said she was in Poland at that time. She said she used to talk to a boy and gave him apples daily. He asked if this boy was tall, skinny and if he had told her that she shouldn’t come back because he was leaving. She gasped, then screamed; “Yes!”

It was her, the young girl who came by every day to give him apples. After 12 years, after the war and in another country they had met again. What are the odds? He proposed to her on that very night and told her he’d never again let her go. They are still happily married today as Jakob is 91 years old and Monika is 93.

However, the most amazing love line comes from God’s Good Book with the seemingly lopsided love of Hosea and Gomer. (Hosea 1:2 - 3:4)

Hosea was a preacher, really a prophet who lived at a time when religious folks didn't want to hear his message. The Israelites were more interested in worshiping idols than worshiping Jehovah. They were, as the hymn writer put it, "Prone to wander and prone to leave the God I love."

One day, God told Hosea his bachelor days were up but the wedding announcement came with a double dose of dreadful conditions. First, God instructed Hosea to take a wife of “harlotry” and second, she would break his heart.

Obviously, Hosea had different hopes for matrimony with pursuing a lover who would share his heart and convictions instead of a harlot nicknamed “radio station” because anyone can pick her up, especially at night.

So much for Hosea’s dreaming of late night talks, stolen kisses in the courtyard and holding hands as he drifted off to sleep beside the one with whom he longed to build his future. But Hosea humbled himself in obedience to God’s instruction and married Gomer.

Barely a New York minute of matrimony and Hosea began to hear rumors about his beloved sneaking off with other men. As forewarned, his heart began to break. He couldn't even be sure the children she bore were his. In fact, God told Hosea to name Gomer’s second son “Lo-ammi” which meant “no kin of mine.” (Hosea 1:9)

Hosea, now a brokenhearted father, a betrayed husband and a bewildered preacher felt like his fragile heart would never recover. Hosea had begged her, threatened her and she still ran off to indulge in sexual escapades. And, then, the final blow, Gomer's wanderings had drawn her to a lover with all of the bling bling and trappings of riches so she left Hosea for good.

Hosea was devastated and of course, his friends were telling him; “Good riddance to her. Now you’ll be through with her screwing around once and for all.” But Hosea did not feel that way. He ached for her to come home. Hosea wanted Gomer back at his side as his faithful wife. And he believed that God was great enough to do it.

One day word came by way of the grapevine gossip that Gomer had been deserted by her lover. She had sold herself into slavery and had hit the skids. This was the last straw. Certainly now Hosea would forget her. But his heart said “No.” He could not give her up. And then God spoke to him: “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress even as the Lord loves those who turn to other gods.” (Hosea 3:1)

Hosea he found her, ragged, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute and chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market, a repulsive shadow of the woman she once was. We wonder how anyone could love her now. But Hosea bought her from her slavery for fifteen shekels of silver and thirteen bushels of barley. (Hosea 3:2)

We cannot escape God’s message of undying love with unlimited forgiveness. Just as Hosea loved Gomer despite her using her sheet for a tablecloth, God loves us despite all of our unfaithfulness and sinning towards Him.

Yes, God uses the story of Hosea and Gomer to illustrate the true meaning of love and forgiveness is really “seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) Gomer’s actions did not deserve love, forgiveness and redemption just like our actions towards God do not deserve His love and His salvation. But, God’s mercy is given to us no matter how bad we are or what rotten things we have done. That’s right, God’s love, mercy and grace isn’t given with a lick and a promise but given with the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your unlimited love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. Thank You for the blessed assurance if we are enslaved, You have already paid the price to buy us back. If we are ashamed, You will cover us. If we are lost, You will find us. If we wander off, You will bring us home. If we get a little rust on our halo, we still know “Jesus Got a Tight Grip” on our soul!