pretty woman

ryan and i have gotten into the netflix-craze recently, so i get to spend hours upon hours browsing movies picking out all the movies we've always wanted to watch but never really remembered to pick up when we are at the local movie gallery or blockbuster. pretty woman was one of those movies... i have always loved julia roberts and richard gere, in fact they are probably my top two favorites (likely due to the fact that i love runaway bride, which has both of them in it!). anyway, when i told ryan that we had ordered this movie, he was skeptical at first. he had seen it before, but i never had... he was like, "you know that's about a prositute." which, i did..but i just wanted to give it a chance. turns out, it's a very redeeming movie, in a way. though quite materialistic, it portrays a pretty decent picture of redemption. it reminded me a lot of my favorite book redeeming love, which is a retelling of the book of Hosea. there's something very convicting about the idea that God has referred to His people as prostitutes before. of course, He wasn't talking about you or me-that was the Israelites....but how often do we act the same way? prostituting ourselves for the things of the world, and for what gain?! yet even though the Israelites (and we, too) turned away time and time again, God said at the end of Hosea, "I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them... They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon..." what a beautiful, beautiful picture...