Journeying On

Have you ever run from God? I think most everyone can admit they have at some point. But here’s the part we don’t picture in our mind’s eye. God gives chase. He doesn’t stand there and wait for us to return to Him. He runs to us – He runs after us. Purses us. His Spirit is at work in our lives to draw His children into Himself. He’s active, not passive. Sometime we think we can avoid His watchful eye. But those who are called His child are ever in His sight.

When I consider the parable of the Prodigal Son, the image that stirs my heart is how the father runs to his son as he sees him approaching – even though the son basically told his father that he was dead to him and he wanted his inheritance now. The son did not deserve his father’s affection. The father had every right to send his son away and never want to see him again. After the son had squandered everything, he returned starved and hopeless, and the father responded by running towards him, embracing him, heaping love on him. I can just picture the father running to the weary son as soon as he saw him appear over the horizon – long before the son saw him.

Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias tells of a poet named Francis Thomspon that wrote a poem titled “The Hound of Heaven” in his online newsletter “A Slice of Infinity“. Below is Ravi’s short article, “On The Run”.

On The Run

by Ravi Zacharias

I believe one of the most profound poems ever written was penned by an Englishman named Frances Thompson. Thompson was a genius, but he became a drug addict and was on the run for many years. Towards the later part of his life he wrote the magnificent masterpiece he called “The Hound of Heaven.” The poem describes God as the persistent hound who, with loving feet, follows and follows until he catches up with this person who is trying to run and flee from him. Writes Thompson:

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.”

As the poem comes to an end, Thompson depicts the persistent cry of God to the one who flees his presence, the one He pursues to the end:

“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

With the wisdom of one who had found himself chased after, Thompson notes the heart of God and the contradiction of man. We run away, fearful that if we have God, we might have nothing else beside. And God says, “You were weak and blind and miserable when you were driving me away, because you were actually driving love away from you. It is Me you seek.”

The life and ministry of the prophet Hosea is a fascinating, mystifying look at the love of God and man’s readiness to push that love away. His message will send a deep ray of hope into our hearts if we listen carefully. Hosea was a prophet called by God to marry Gomer, a harlot who continually left the loving home Hosea had provided to return to her life of prostitution. One can almost hear the whispers among the people to whom Hosea faithfully preached, until someone was brave enough to ask: “Hosea, can you tell us how it is you continue to love this woman, a woman who has so betrayed you and repeatedly abandoned her commitment to you? How can a holy man of God like you be joined to a woman such as this?” And Hosea says, “I will be delighted to answer your question if you will first answer a question of mine. How can a holy God like this love such a harlotrous people like us?”

The first thing about the nature of God’s relationship with us is that He gives to us a love that we do not deserve. We do not merit it. But not only is the love of God unmerited; it is also a love that grows and is sustained by relationship. The longer we walk with Him, the more we understand how glorious this love is.

Through the prophet Hosea, God spoke graphically to a nation running from his presence. As individuals, He chases after us, woos us into his arms, pays the price to buy us back, cleans us up, and brings us home. Through his Son, God has reached out his arms to pay the price for our sin, to offer us new life, and to give us fresh hope and meaning. Let us come to the Cross as we are: sinners needing mercy, children desiring love, souls weary of running through our nights and days, and ready to follow the one who ordains them.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.