And God Ran

 

Sometimes I think we get God all wrong.

Let me explain…

So often, we see God as this distant, detached, unfeeling being in the sky who stares off into space unaware of us mere mortals and our problems.

Not true!

Jesus Himself paints a very different picture of the heart of God in the scriptures. Look no further than the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.

It’s one of my absolute favorite stories in the Scriptures.

This story starts out with the son asking his father for his inheritance early. Translation: “I wish you were dead. But since you’re still here, could I at least have my money?”

YIKES!

The father gives his son what he asked for (God never forces Himself on anyone) and the son heads out with his wad of cash and newfound freedom.

No surprise, the young man with low morals and a sudden influx of cash isn’t wise with financial management (insert pretend shocked face).

So he ends up penniless and starving, eating leftover pig slop—which was significant to a Jewish audience who would’ve regarded pigs as “unclean.”

The son couldn’t take it anymore. He headed back to his father’s house, head low and tail between his legs. He was rehearsing his speech where he would beg for forgiveness and ask to work alongside his father’s servants, when he saw a figure on the horizon.

He squinted, trying to make out who was coming. It became clear that this person was not walking, but RUNNING toward him. In the next moment, he realized the man was his father. He was running, not to have a shouting match full of “I-told-you-so’s,” but out of pure joy at the sight of his son.

The SAME son who earlier had told his father, “I wish you were dead.”

We serve a God who RUNS to us in the midst of our greatest failures…even in the midst of overt rejection of Him. So often, we feel like God is distant when we fail. But the reality is, the very second our hearts turn back home, He will run to meet us.

Not walk. RUN!

I love the imagery of the father hiking up his long robe so he could run as fast as his sandals could take him! God’s so in love with His children that He becomes completely undignified when we return home.

I hope and pray you feel, in the deepest parts of your soul, the love of a father who is crazy about you. He misses you when you’re away and runs to meet you, even if you’ve failed or rejected Him.

Take just a moment and rest in that love today.