Try explaining to a very analytical 10 year old the story of the prodigal son and how it mirrors the relationship we have with God. Try doing this at midnight. We were cuddled up in the dark talking about the way God rejoices when someone who has been away comes back to Him. There were questions and answers, singing of snippets from the song, "When God Ran" from Phillips, Craig and Dean. It is a poignant picture. I wonder how a child who has never really known the rejection, distance of alienation of a parent can experience this in as profound a way as I did. I know that I can trust God to reveal His love to Kullen, all on His lonesome, but I know that I ached to be loved with that kind of abandon. This picture of the father, watching and waiting for the son, seeing him come from far off, and casting all dignity aside, hiking up his garment and running for all he was worth to the son who could have surely been called a disappointment, a lost cause, a failure is one that I need fresh daily. Sometimes I wonder how children who grow up in loving homes need Him like I do.
Thank you Papa.
It might be heresy to say so, but as I've asked the Lord some of those same questions He's shown me that He gives/reveals Himself according the the unique needs of the individual. You & I likely know Him in (desperate) ways that our children never will. However, our children will likely know God as the Loving Father that we could never comprehend because of our own brokeness in that earthly relationship. This "knowing Him uniquely" is one of the beautiful things about the Church - who is the FULLNESS of Christ (Eph. 1) ~ as we know others, we know more of Christ!!
ReplyDeleteI love that song too! I agree with Tami. God meets us where we are, and fills the gaps in our lives whatever those gaps are. If we all had to understand Him in exactly the same way, many would be hindered from knowing Him at all because they are starting from such a bad/different/damaged point of view. Praise the Lord, He is big enough to love us each as individuals. (kind of the way we love our kids all the same amount but in slightly different ways because they are different people with different personalities) (((HUGS)))
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't an unloving family that taught me to need the Father, it was my own sin. I was able to get myself VERY alienated.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, Big Red Driver
ReplyDeleteLisa B.