While sitting waiting in the car while my husband went into the electrical store, I watched customers going in and out. From the outside, the shop looked closed: the storefront was high and covered in advertising. The tall set of front doors too were opaque, each side advertising a different brand of high-end plug- and light-fittings.
Despite the appearance of being closed, the doors slide open whenever a customer approaches, giving a glimpse of an expansive interior before sliding together again to reinstate the “closed” look.
A well built man strides up to the doors, a young boy trailing behind him. He can’t be older than four; Dad looks to be in his early thirties. As the doors open, he steps into the store without looking round. The boy hasn't yet stepped up onto the small raised porch in front of the door and I shift uneasily in my seat: will he catch up? As he reaches the doors, they slide closed - close enough to him to make me catch my breath anxiously, anticipating them closing ON him.
My hand moves automatically to the car door handle - what will the boy do? I hear his plaintive cry, “Papa!” He is so small beside the tall, high doors. He cannot see in - cannot see where his father has gone. “Papa!” - more urgently now. Where is his father? How could he just walk away without checking on his son?
I am about to get out of the car to reassure him when the doors open, and the father scoops him up and carries him inside. I sit back, relieved.
Each one of us is like that little boy, completely cut off from the love and fatherhood of God.
BUT scripture tells us he has not left us as orphans; there are countless stories and parables about how God seeks us out, rescues us, sweeps us up in his embrace. We have only to recognise his absence from our lives and cry, "Papa!" and he will race to our rescue.
“Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.”
Psalms 34:17 The Message version
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"
1 John 3:1
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
Romans 8:35
