When You Love a Prodigal: It's the waiting, isn't it.
Here I am once again waiting for a hurricane to arrive. Definitely not my favorite activity. It’s what happens when you live in Florida.
Actually waiting has never been my favorite thing. But I’ve waited for a few things big things like: to get married, to have a child, to publish a book, and plenty of smaller things.
But nothing has been as challenging as waiting on our prodigal.
Will it ever end? Will change ever come? Will the pain, confusion, fear, anger, despair ever end?
During the almost 15 years it took our son to turn from his bad choices, we waited. On our knees. With tears. Clinging to Jesus.
Finally, things were better. He was not making the terrible choices he did for so long. I quit calling him a prodigal. He became responsible and hardworking. We had a good relationship. There was trust. But still we waited....And it happened.
His life became very challenging. His marriage fell apart. In his despair, he returned to old patterns, made choices of the past. A brief reunion with his wife crashed and he went into deep depression.
And I have said, many times: I thought it was time! Isn’t it time, Lord? Are we doing this again? How long, Lord? It still wasn’t time.
I know you understand. We all know the truths of Scripture. We know God is bigger than time:
Moses: A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4)
David: But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands…. (Psalm 31:14-15)
Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)
But many times, many days, even many years, we struggle to accept, act on, live by, rest in—BELIEVE—these truths. It seems too hard, too long, too uncertain. How long, Lord? Will it ever end?
But these truths are true. They are reality. And that is what we need to look at, delve into, listen for: God’s perspective on time—for our prodigals, for us, for the Kingdom, for eternity.
One verse has especially sustained me over these years: “I am the Lord. In its time I will do this swiftly.” (Isaiah 60:22b)
Consider what the Lord is saying to us through these words to the children of Israel just before their return from 70 years of captivity.
“I am the Lord.” Such a needed reminder for me. You’ve seen the sayings—from God--online: “I am God and you are not” with several variations.
Sure, I have many good ideas, plans, schedules for how things should play out for my life—and for my loved one. God reminds me who is in control.
“In its time…” I so want “its time” to be now, to be “my time.” It rarely is.
“I…” This “I” of course is God, not I.
“will do this…” We cannot make it happen. But He can and will.
“swiftly…” I love that. Soon. Now. No more waiting. But the swiftness is not “in my time” but in “its (God-ordained) time.”
And it has happened. A turning point came—and lasted.
As I have been in the Word, asking God what He wants to say to me about Time –for whatever I am waiting for—I have looked at time, days and years, today and tomorrow, and waiting. Oh how rich. How great God is—how puny yet treasuredI am. How intentional God is—all in love and with grace.
C2024 Judy Douglass