Waiting for Us

I went to the Michael W. Smith concert tonight and really enjoyed the evening. Well, I enjoyed most of the evening - after a year like last year, it's hard to sit through a concert, knowing that my $35 ticket could go so much farther in another country. But God still had a message for me - Michael talked about the story of the Prodigal's Son (Luke 15). Actually, he changed the name of the story to "The Extravagant Father", who knew that his son was lost and so his only choice was to let his son go.

Just before I left South Africa, I spoke at a pastor's meeting and they had this version on the wall: "This is the story of the prodigal son - it should be called the running Father - who waited every day for his son to return. The son who had rejected him so badly, and finally when he saw him from a long way off - his Father ran to him and hugged him."

At the beginning of my time in South Africa, I read an article by Bishop T. D. Jakes which said, "The greatest reason for searching for God is that when we find Him we find ourselves. We find the answer to the question: Who am I really (because how will I know if I am successful if I don't know what I was created to be)?
"The Bible doesn't talk about the prodigal son finding God; it says he came to himself. Isn't that the real journey, to come to yourself? To wake up and discover why you had to go through what you had to go through to get where you are today?"

It doesn't make sense, does it? God who created us, loves us so much that He gave us total free will. That's a huge risk because it means that we could reject Him, as so many do. Knowing that we are lost, He lets us go, all the while waiting for us to return to Him. Waiting for Us. . .though we've turned our own way. And it doesn't matter how long He has to wait, His arms are always open and ready when we finally realize that we are nothing without Him. That we finally figure out who we are when we look to the One who stitched us together and breathed dreams into us. The God of the universe longs for an intimate relationship with each one of us. . .and I am overwhelmed by His love for me.