Hosea 2:21-23

If we have the desire to give our children good gifts how much more does God want to give us eternal life with Him. Nothing can be compared to the gift of salvation that He offers in Christ Jesus…NOTHING.

This week we lost another bright light in our world, Paul Farmer.
I was inspired and buoyed reading Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains. Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it. Farmer (Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood) was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.

And here's one of the part of the story that stayed with me. Many, here in the United States, openly criticized and questioned Farmer’s decision to spend time in places like Haiti (you know, because he could accomplish "so much more here", why waste it there), where he gave all of his time to seeing so few patients (travel, difficult terrain etc.). Time to Farmer where each, and every, patient mattered.
You see, Paul wasn’t keeping score.

“And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn't care if no one else is willing to follow their example,” Tracy Kidder writes. “He's still going to make these hikes, he'd insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you're saying that their lives matter less than some others', and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.”

Yes... Our invitation to see, measure, value and honor differently...Terry Hershey “SabbathMoments “

Hosea 2:21-23

21 “It shall come to pass in that day That I will answer,” says the Lord; “I will answer the heavens, And they shall answer the earth. 22 The earth shall answer With grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer Jezreel. 23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ” The New King James Version

Jezreel meaning meaning “God will sow”; the symbolic name of Hosea’s first child. Earlier, the name “Jezreel” telegraphed disaster and destruction. Now, the image is positive: God will plant and rebuild Israel. Faithlife Study Bible

The heavens would provide rain for the earth; the earth would produce its fruit in turn. Israel is called Jezreel, meaning “God Plants,” because the Lord would replant Israel in the land. The NKJV Study Bible

From that time Israel would be more truly attached to the Lord; no longer calling him Baali, or “My lord and master,” alluding to authority, rather than love, but Ishi, an address of affection. This may foretell the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; and also be applied to the conversion of the Jews to Christ, in the days of the apostles, and the future general conversion of that nation; and believers are enabled to expect infinitely more tenderness and kindness from their holy God, than a beloved wife can expect from the kindest husband. When the people were weaned from idols, and loved the Lord, no creature should do them any harm. This may be understood of the blessings and privileges of the spiritual Israel, of every true believer, and their partaking of Christ’s righteousness; also, of the conversion of the Jews to Christ. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Isaiah 55:10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

Hosea 1:6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.

Zechariah 8:12 ‘For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew—I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these.