WHEN YOUR CHILD WALKS AWAY
Jonah was running as fast as he could. God said, “Go that way.” Jonah went the other way. God pursued him — all the way into the middle of the Mediterranean — and gave him, of all things, a submarine ride back. Peter denied Christ three times. What did Christ do? He pursued. He showed up on the beach. He cooked him breakfast. And he asked him three questions. A question stirs the conscience. And then there is the prodigal son. The father allowed the wandering, but he never lost sight of him. He was on the porch.
“God allows the wandering. He never loses sight.”
One final thing Notice in the prodigal’s story that the son was alone. He was not being chased down a road. But he came to himself. There is a stage where the prodigal revisits reality — and that is what you are praying for. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.’ … But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and That language would have been almost scandalous in a Middle Eastern culture. Elders did not run. They waited for others to come to them. But here, Jesus points out something about the father — and about the Father — that changes everything. Compassion does not only wait. Upon the return, compassion runs. Your child right now may be in a chapter of rebellion. They may have walked a long way off. But God has not lost sight of them. He writes complete stories. You are only in the middle of one. May God bless you in the difficulty of waiting for a child to return. And may you do it with faithfulness, with lament, with grace, and with compassion. kissed him.” — Luke 15:17–20
For Reflection
Word of Life Fellowship • 19
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