One of my favorite songs is called “Broken Tether” by the Collection. The singer is wrestling with his failure and claims that if he were to meet God in person he’d change all his ways and be a better person–which might be true. But then comes a line that gets me every time:
I hope that you are running down the road to me, without your shoes on.
The image is, of course, from the great, parenting parable of the Prodigal Son, in which the son tells his father he wishes he were dead, to give him his money and leaves. But the father waits, and waits with joyful expectation until his son’s return.
When your children push sacred chaos to the point of explosion, when your relationship is in its darkest moment, would you drop everything and run down the road to them?
This is the posture God the father has for you. As his child, you can’t push the chaos far enough that you can’t expect to see him running down the road to you. For the sake of Christ, he’s even promised a party. You are loved.
May you go in Peace.
Worthy of Imagination 