there are two perspectives for every harlot

I'm thinking about the harlot in Hosea.
She comes to mind now and then sporadically when i think about God and his relation to us. She climbs on in there when I glance at my bookshelf and see my copy of "redeeming love" which made me ugly-cry, complete with snot bubbles, from cover to cover when i read it. but today she unexpectedly sprang up out of a different book I was reading.
The reference in the book was to Hosea 2:6-7

"Therefore I will block her path with thorn bushes;
I will wall her in so she cannot find her way.
She will chase after her lovers but she will not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them."

When I first read it I thought it was harsh! it reminded me of times when i've felt walled in on all sides, unable to see past my toes and trying in vain to escape in any way that looked promising.
I imagined her arms bruised and bloodied from trying to rage against the walls and bushes until they fell or parted. Her voice would be gone from relentless screaming to be found. her heart broken from the defeat of thinking she had found a way out only to discover herself deeper in the maze of her entrapment. she's unable to have her love requited because her lovers are always just out of reach. she's soon left with no other option but to.. look up..
oh.
i get it.
i felt the resentment which had been building in my heart subside entirely.
this is not a harsh, mean punishment of God. He is not trapping her, or us for the enjoyment of watching us struggle. This is all done out of his unequaled love for us and his unquenchable desire to have our hearts for his own.
when we start to turn to things, or people, other than him for our salvation he places obstructions on those paths so we can be lovingly led back to where our real salvation is. in Him. he does it to save us from the inevitable pain it causes us to seek wholeness outside of himself. but because he is a loving God we still have the ability to choose. we can proudly thrash at thorns until we bleed to death or we can recognize where we are trying to draw life from death and turn into his waiting arms and together you can find a renewed vision.

This was good for me to realize because i feel like this weekend has been full of variations of thorn bushes and walls. walls of anger and pride, bushes of guilt and fogs of doubt. i would like to stop thrashing now.