Pressing on through the looking-glass

James Cathcart June 10, 2026 2 2

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Hosea 5:15-6:6 (NIV-UK)

15 

Then I will return to my lair
    until they have borne their guilt
    and seek my face –
in their misery
    they will earnestly seek me.’

 

(6) 

1 ‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
    but he will heal us;
he has injured us
    but he will bind up our wounds.

2 

After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will restore us,
    that we may live in his presence.

3 

Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.’

4 

‘What can I do with you, Ephraim?
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.

5 

Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth –
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.[a]

6 

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

In the Old Testament we meet a fractured, fractious people trying to work out who God is and how best to follow him. They sing songs, recount histories, tell stories, share prophecies and try to develop a framework for living a good life. 

The people we meet, while sometimes funny and heroic and charismatic, also repeatedly mess up, get confused, pick up the wrong end of the stick, and fundamentally misunderstand who God is and what he wants from them.

So in the Old Testament, we meet ourselves.

One of the things that gives scripture its immense timeless power is how it catches so many of the highs and lows of humanity as we wrestle with what it is to live and love.

Sometimes when we look in a mirror what we see can shock us. Sometimes we hardly recognise the eyes staring back at us.

When we hear people lamenting about God tearing and breaking, injuring and scattering people it feels strange and alienating. Who is this God, who are these people?

But life is hard and does not throw its punches. Have we not got deep-seated feelings of being abandoned, hurt, scattered, neglected and injured? Do we not recognise what it is to suffer and to complain to a God who can sometimes feel far and inscrutable?

Do we not recognise the lines under the eyes in the looking-glass? The long creases around the lips, the hollows, the scars?

And do we not also know what it means to hold on, to press on, to dig in, to realise we are looking in the wrong place and turn to God to find God already running towards us? To see a glint in those old eyes.

Do we not know the face in the mirror after all?

God-given, God-made, God-loved.

Prayer:

Help us Lord to learn,

to see,

to understand,

bit by bit

a grace

that knows no limit.

Amen.