In my quiet time this morning, I was listening to this song. The message really touched me.
As I was listening, two images came to my mind, images that surely portray our Heavenly Father’s love and grace towards us.
When my children were younger, and I had been away, either in the field while in the Army, or later-after the divorce, when I came to visit, they would always run to me for hugs and kisses. They wanted to know that I still loved them and to let me know that they still loved me. Sadly, due to intervening events and the passage of time, some of those relationships have been crushed. Yet, looking down the road that passes over the hills of the past, I wait and I hope, trusting that one day those from whom I am separated will be seen coming over the hill and down the road, so that I can once again run to them and be re-united.
The second image, a parable told by Jesus, is that of a father, whose younger son has left home with the intent of never returning. The father never gives up hope, and though going on with life as usual, keeps watching for the return of his son. The son lives for years in a distant land and squanders his wealth, so much so, that he finally realizes he has blown it. BIG TIME. He cannot find a job anywhere and has lost all hope. He is at the point where he realizes that his only slim hope of survival is to return home to the father he had insulted and turned his back on, and to ask to be taken on as a slave or hired servant at minimum wage.
As the son grudges despondently towards his father’s house (he can no longer think of it as home), the father is watching that road coming over the hill, as he has every single day since the son walked over it years before. When the father sees his son crest the hill, he drops what he is doing and runs to meet his son. The father hugs his son and, when the son asks for a job as a laborer, the father refuses. Instead, he fully welcomes the son back into the family and throws the party of the year to celebrate.
While in my case the separation is not due to the actions of the children, but those of the parents, I know God is able to restore and look expectantly towards that day.
But in the parable, the father is God, and the prodigal is me, and you. And God waited YEARS for me to return, and rejoiced with all the angels when I did. And He is waiting for others to do the same. And there are still days when I still wander of, not at great distances, but wander I do, and He waits patiently for me to turn around and come back. And each time He comes running.
And there are times when I go running to Him, just for the joy of being in His presence.
Won’t you join me as I run to Him, and HE runs to US?!?
