...And The Father Ran

By Gary Amirault


I don't know about you, but from my perspective, especially at times such as when I write articles like the previous one, God seems to move too slow for me. I want justice ... now. I want us to stop deceiving each other ... now. And yet time goes on, the injustices go on and I cry, "How long Oh Lord!"

As we go through the Scriptures we see a very slow moving God. His patience almost makes Him seem as if He is asleep. As a matter of fact, much of the world, theological and otherwise, thinks He is either dead, or a trillion miles away preoccupied with a mansion building project.

When His Son, Jesus Christ, entered the world, He seemed to follow the same pattern. The Scriptures never record Him running anywhere. From the apostles' point of view, Jesus always seemed to be late. Remember how He sent the apostles ahead of Him at the feast of Tabernacles? (John 7:2)

Jesus always seemed so slow. Even at the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples fell asleep during Jesus' long prayer.

But when our Wonderful Father, full of grace and patience sees one of His sons come to his senses and embarks on that road of repentance from his sins, our Father gets off His throne and runs to meet us while still on the road and he greets us with compassion, a kiss, forgiveness and new clothes. (Luke Chapter 15) There is a time when our Father runs. The invitation to see Him running is always there for all of us prodigals.