I have a teenage daughter who is going through that phase where everything I do is interpreted by her as ruining her life. Whether it’s waking her up for school, asking her to get off the computer, asking her to pick up some of her mess, telling her to get out of the shower – whatever it is, apparently I’m doing it to ruin her life. She can often be quite aggressive, and her mood and language is often venomous.

This has been going on and off for years now, and one of the most difficult parts I find is that because I’m her dad, I still need to be there for her. So even though she spits in my face every day (not literally), as the adult I need to rise above that and still love her, still be there for her, and protect her. I admit I don’t always meet that challenge.

This reminds me of the Jewish prophet called Hosea, in around 750BC, where it’s recorded that God instructed him to marry “an adulterous wife”. The idea seemed to be that God wanted to illustrate to the Jewish people how much he loved them, even though they rejected him. Hosea married a woman called Gomer who indeed was unfaithful to him time and time again, leaving him to sleep and live with other men. But Hosea loved her, and although she would break his heart, God would ask him to take her back. As you read through the story you can sense the pain Hosea goes through each time, yet he loves her so much that he cannot let her go, and continues to fight for her even though she has thrown his love back in his face and humiliated him.

The life of Hosea was meant to represent how we can often reject God, yet he continues to chase after us because of his great love and compassion for us. For me what is most amazing is that he doesn’t love us because we love him first, or because we’re good or deserving, but he loves us even while we are his enemy, even while we hate him. In my own life, even after I spat in his face and rejected him and hated him for years and years, he still loved me, and wouldn’t let me go. He patiently waited for me. And I need to do the same with my daughter.