We hear from the prophet Hosea today. Hosea was a prophet from the Northern Kingdom who preached in his homeland rather than sent by God to somewhere else. He conducted his ministry in the 8th century before the birth of Christ. The Vatican II missal states that “more than any other (Old Testament) prophet, Hosea tells about God’s love for his people.”
I love the images of plants and trees that Hosea uses today to give the people a message of hope, telling them that God will be like dew on a plant for the nation of Israel, that God’s shoots will spread out, that God’s fruitfulness will blossom like the Lilly flower, that his beauty will be like an olive tree. One of our volunteers in our prison ministry was telling me how he hopes that the gardening skills that we are teaching the inmates in our garden project will give hope to them and will be a source of comfort and relief and the midst of their challenging days in prison.
No matter what challenges and obstacles we currently have our our journey of faith, may we see God’s presence and his blessings in the reality around us.
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