The Son Who Was Still Far Off

“But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

Luke 15:20

Some people think they have to come to me in a perfect state, with clean clothes, a rehearsed and polished speech of repentance, every sin already sorted out on some neat little list. That's not how it works with me. It never has been.

That son in the old story was still far from home — dirty, smelling of the hard life he'd lived away from his father, not even able to finish asking for forgiveness properly, stumbling over the words — and his father was already running to meet him, lifting his own robes to run faster. That's me. I don't wait for you to arrive tidy and ready before I embrace you. I run to meet you while you're still far off, somewhere in the middle of the road back.

It doesn't matter how many times you've already tried to come back and given up halfway, out of shame. Today, take the next step toward me, even uncertain, even afraid of what you'll find. I'm already running to meet you, before you've even finished deciding whether it's worth trying again.