Chris Spielman’s story is a direct counterpoint to the infidelity of Senator John Edwards, right down to the wife afflicted with cancer. Spielman was one of the NFL’s better linebackers. He had starred at Ohio State in a career that put him in the College Football Hall of Fame. After going professional, he played on four Pro Bowl teams. Then, in 1998, at the top of his form, he sat out a year. The NFL and his fans were moved to the back burner because his wife was fighting breast cancer.

Stefanie Spielman and her doctors fought the cancer aggressively. When chemotherapy made her hair fall out, her husband shaved his own head as a gesture of solidarity. All that year he ran the household, took care of their children, and supported his wife. He returned to football in the 1999 season, only to retire before the season actually began. His heart was at home.

Stefanie battled her disease for more than a decade before passing away in 2009. After she died, Chris said, “She was my only girlfriend.”8

When we see such steadfast, unrelenting loyalty, our hearts are touched with deep admiration. We know we are seeing something very good—someone choosing to stand in the gap rather than walk away; someone loving at a high cost; someone saying, like God Himself, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Every time I read of a couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, my heart glows: fifty years of tests passed; fifty years of promises kept. These stories tell me that there are still good models of committed love out there—models that reflect an exalted, heavenly love.

And I love hearing accounts of couples who fought for their marriage, who could have bailed out but hung in there because they knew that all things are possible with God. Nothing should be more stubborn than married love.

In Hosea 11, God presents the idea of steadfast love in high definition through the story of a man’s unfailing love for a failing wife. Sixteen times in this chapter God uses “I” in a sustained revelation to show that He is the one who has loved and sustained His people through every step of their lives. He demonstrates the all-encompassing characteristics of His love by employing three illustrative analogies: He loves us as a father, as a husband, and as a shepherd.

He Loves as a Father

When Israel was a child, I loved him,

And out of Egypt I called My son…

I taught Ephraim to walk,

Taking them by their arms…

—HOSEA 11:1, 3

Here the Lord reminds His people of the tender care He gave them during their infancy as a nation. Because He loved Israel, God called them out of bondage in Egypt, delivered them from their taskmasters, and taught them to walk—to make their own choices and determine their own direction.