“I lead them with human ties, with leading-strings of love. With them, I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek, and I bent down to feed him” (Hos 11:4).
The Father uses a thousand ways to show His love to mankind. In many forms he bends down to us, and this happens most clearly in the birth of the Son of God, who came to us as a man, so that we might understand how close God wants to be to us, how precious we are to Him….
Love is the great unifying force, and God’s love for us is so immense that, in the Second Person of His Divinity, He united Himself indiss0lubly to human nature. The Incarnation of the Son of God is therefore an unsurpassed declaration of His love, which is then expressed in many more ways. When we begin to see with the eyes of love, we discover everywhere the manifestations of our heavenly Father’s love, for it is this love that motivates all His actions.
Our Father wants to convey His love to us in terms that are understandable to us. On the human level, we know that love between a man and a woman can become a predominant theme. And the Father wants to make His people understand that it is precisely with this spousal love that He courts them: “I lead them with human ties, with leading-strings of love”.
The second expression of love in this verse of the Prophet Hosea is also well known to us: the tenderness of the parents as they hold their child against their cheek, giving it all the affection and nourishment it needs and delighting in its presence.
All these expressions of love come from God and are reflected in our human life. He wants to remind us that He Himself is the source, so that we never forget how much He loves us.
If the certainty of this love would reach the depths of our soul and permeate our whole being, then the song of love for God would resound in our life: the song for His glory and for the joy of all souls who seek God.