The other day as I was walking Zach, I was thinking about the parable of the prodigal son. The phrase "while he was still far off" caught my attention.
Yes, the father runs to meet his younger son while he is still far off. The spatial aspect of this narrative captured my imagination. When the prodigal decides to return home, I imagine he can hardly make it back on his own. So, while he's still far from home, the father knows it and runs to meet him and escort him back home. I don’t think God meets us half way; he meets us more than "half way". Even when we ‘will’ to return home (the very effort to ‘will’ itself needs the divine lure), the journey is too far to make it on our own. I dare to think that we can even reach the half way mark on our own. And so, the father knowing our finitude, comes running down to meet us, while we are still far off…
Matthew Ichihashi Potts says this - If sin is distance, then God’s love will be signaled by the chasm Christ crosses to meet us rather than the torture he bears to win us.
As Grace and I were conversing this thought, she pointed out that the father was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the prodigal and ran to meet him. She then pointed out how Martha ran to meet Jesus when he came to her brother Lazarus’ funeral while Mary stayed home.
So often, when someone dear to us visits our home, we tend to run down the driveway as soon as they drive in and welcome them home. Grace very vividly remembered how one of her dear cousins was sitting on his doorstep eagerly awaiting our arrival at his home. We also recollected how another very dear family would always walk up their driveway along with their little children to welcome us into their home.
Yes, love crosses the chasm…