lent 36 - the God who runs

Yesterday I was in town at a major junction which had multiple sets of traffic lights waiting to cross the road.   As the green man flashed up and I started to move I saw a mother and her small daughter running towards the crossing.  The girl was probably about three.  She was holding onto her Mum's hand for all she was worth.  Mother's face was set in a look of grim determination that she was going to make the crossover before the lights changed.  She was running at quite a speed.  Her daughter was charging along beside her with a look of utter glee on her face.   In a split second I understood that children absolutely love to run - and more that that, they love to run with their parents.  But parents so rarely run.  Only when there's a good, pressing, urgent reason do most adults break into a trot.  Or unless they are exercising with purpose and a mission.   The little girl I saw yesterday was clearly rejoicing in the fact that she was getting to sprint down the road with her Mummy.  It was cute. 

As I was watching my mind was suddenly taken to the story of the prodigal son and the father who picks up his skirts and charges down the road to meet his wayward homecoming offspring.   To the Jewish listener this would have been unspeakably offensive and terrible.  Men never ran.  Fathers were supposed to be solemn, decorous, and most certainly not given to outward displays of emotion.  But in the story the father throws off all convention and cultural restrictions in order to express the passionate explosion of love and forgiveness he experiences as he sees his son coming home.   And of course in the parable the father represents God Himself.  The God who runs.

In Song of Songs the lover is described thus :

Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.

Whilst this is a love poem depicting the relationship between a woman and her lover, it is also understood to be a picture of the relationship Jesus has with His church.  And He is clearly painted as a vigorous, healthy young stag bounding and leaping over the hills.  The God who runs

Our God doesn't sit on a throne dispensing justice with his orb and sceptre in His hand.  Rather He is the shepherd who goes out looking for the lost sheep.  He is the father who sits at the window waiting and when he catches the first glimpse of a son turning around to come home, goes sprinting down the path to meet him.  He is the lover of our souls who is leaping mountain heights in order to reach us, the object of His affection.

The little girl who was so delighted to be running down the street with her Mum yesterday is a picture of you and me and the unbridled joy which is possible when we put our hands in the hand of the Father and run with Him.  Our Dad who runs.