The Ticket Back Home

Let’s cut straight to the point, shall we?  Our title, The Ticket Back Home is all about grace and acceptance.  Here is why.

I will borrow a line or two from Henry Nouwen’s book The Return of the Prodigal. 

“Here the mystery of my life is unveiled.  I am loved so much that I am free to leave home. … But the Father is always looking for me with outstretched arms to receive me back and whisper again in my ear:  ‘You are my beloved.  On you my favor rests.’”

What is at play here is this – the relentless love of Papa God. 

He loves us so much that He, God, continues to allow us our free will.  We get to choose.  We choose our food, our clothes, our friends, our jobs, our cars, our entertainment, our sins, our lifestyle and everything else. 

He promised a long time ago that He would never revoke this one privilege.  It started in the garden.  Adam and Eve chose fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And so today we retain that one great power.

We choose.

And even if, in that choosing, we walk away from God, what then? 

He still looks for us.  He still calls to us.  His love continually reaches out to us, offering grace, hope, forgiveness, peace, safety, assurance.

And still, if we choose to ignore all of that, He still looks for us.  With every stirring of a leaf or every rubbing together of a couple of tree branches, perhaps Father God wonders if we made that disturbance as we turn and head back to His arms of grace and His house of safety.

The ticket back home to God is always waiting for us at the station.  It is ours for the claiming.  And we get to choose when to claim it. 

Today might be a dandy time to claim your ticket and start your journey home toward redemption.

He is looking for you.  He left the light on for you.  There is food on the table and new clothes for you to wear.  And your seat by the fire is ready for you.

Come home to the one who loves you and has never stopped loving you.

Jeremiah 31:3 reminds us of this:

From afar, God reaches for us and He says, ‘I have loved you with a forever kind of love.  I shall continue to offer you my faithfulness.’

Amen.  Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

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