I Am Rahab…The Kid Sister, Gomer pt. 2
by JC Miller

Dear Diary: December 14, 1994

My dream guy drives a midnight blue Lexus GS, pimped out in a full body kit with chrome BBS rims, and a sleek black leather interior. He cruises the streets in a gangsta lean, with tinted windows deliberately rolled down so that everyone can see him with me… (excerpt from They Call Me Gomer…)

Gomer had BIG dreams and an even bigger imagination. Have you ever heard the saying, “be careful what you wish for cause you just might get it?” I think it was a song? Gomer missed that one. She wanted everything her eyes desired, even at the risk of losing her soul, which included the things that were not hers.

Imagine, if you will, Mr. Not Right. That would be Jeremy Cole, Gomer’s dream guy. He was a bonafide gangster, unattainable, and off-limits. But Gomer pursued after him with an unwavering determination despite his lifestyle and status with her sister. As a teenager, I remember having a high school crush. Thank God he remained just that–a crush. Mr. Not Right was all that and a bag of chips, and no one could tell me otherwise. In between classes, during classes, the train rides home, daydreams, and night dreams –he consumed my thoughts. For a season in my life, my only mission was getting with this Caramel Honey Dip. I didn’t know what that detailed at the time –all I knew was, I had to have him. Unlike Gomer, I did not know about the lifestyle that my dream guy led apart from school. I did not know that the streets he ran had corrupted him, and it was in my best interest to leave him alone. His school days grew less and less frequent until he stopped going altogether. My story could have ended differently. He was supposed to be my baby daddy! LOL! I wish I had a decent picture of him to show –trust me; it is not from lack of trying.

(This is the picture I covertly took as he walked by through the crowded lunchroom. LOL! I’m tryin’ to tell ya, I had it bad. )

Through the imagination of my minds-eye, Gomer had a craving for the things she ‘should not’ have, bit off more than she could chew, and was not content with what she had. Her husband, the prophet Hosea, used her as a metaphor for God’s people -he said:

Their hearts are like an oven

and in the morning, it breaks out like a raging fire.

Gomer chased after her lovers but could not catch them; she looked for them but could not find them. I do not know how long this went on, but she had three children during her adulterous days.

For some, life lessons are quickly learned, and the humility of the fact that God is in control settles in early. For others, as the prophet stated, it takes a lifetime to turn their hearts toward God.

Their hair is gray,

but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.

Their arrogance testifies against them,

yet they don’t return to the Lord their God

or even try to find him.

A familiar story, huh? Oh, what wrenched men are we! Life has not changed much. We still pursue after that which our eyes desire. That which is tainted. Many have moved past puppy love and advance toward the love of money, power, greed, and sex. But as in the book of Hosea, God is still in the redeeming business. God told the prophet, Hosea, to take back his adulterous wife even after she left him.

Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’

What would it look like to pursue God with the same intentions and passion that we have for everything else? I do not know about you, but my interests have changed, and my lens is now narrowed toward Christ. Why, because…I Am Rahab, Too.