The Fathers’ Cry

In the background of every single one of our own personal stories, there is the sound of a Father calling after His children. There is a dad saying, “Come back home”. There is a God who wants you to come into a deeper place of intimacy in your relationship with Him. If you listen, you can hear Him. Not through a voice always, but also through events that happen throughout your life, things you’ve gone through, the searching you’ve done… He is there calling you home, to His heart.

Even in our running, in our relentless denial of Him and His love, He chases after us, calling for us, crying for us to stop running the opposite direction and to instead run into His open, loving, safe arms. Even in our mess, He wants to bless us with His grace, mercy, and kindness. He didn’t just want you when you became clean, no, He wanted you even when you happily lived in the dirt of sin and shame. It wasn’t like our sin was as light as a feather, no, it was unbearably burdensome. He took the weight of all our sin in its fullness and heaviness and said, “I did it because you are worth it to me”… even when you weren’t sorry.

What kind of love does that? That even when you’ve abandoned them, even when you’ve used them, ignored them, denied them, they still chase after your heart in a pursuit so relentless that the Earth itself would grow tired of that constant revolving movement that feels like it’s going nowhere. But He is hope. And He never gives up on us. He never loses hope because hope is simply who He is.

While we’ve been chasing fading lovers on a dying Earth, the everlasting Father has been pursuing our hearts from before the beginning of time. Doing everything to draw us closer. Trying to show us He has all the answers. Telling us, “everything else will fail you, so please just take a chance on me, your unfailing, reckless, unfathomable, perfect Love who does not care what you’ve done because I simply want to call you mine”. Your past doesn’t scare Him, it doesn’t make Him question His loyalty to you, it doesn’t make Him fearful that you’ll leave again because He has already seen in the future the times you do. God knows you don’t hold anywhere near the capacity to love Him the way He loves you, yet… He still cries out to just have you.

Stop for a moment. Do you feel that hunger? Do you see that pang of wonder in your soul for something more, something bolder? Something real and bigger than yourself? That’s the Creator of all calling. That’s Him saying He has more for you, He has so much in store for you, He wants to wrap you up in His loving arms that make the rest of the world fade away. He paid the price for you, even when you wanted to live in the debt of your shame. He is calling you today, so please stop, listen, and reply to the Father’s cry.

“Pay attention, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I, the Lord, made you, and I will not forget you. I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” Isaiah 44:21-22 NLT

“Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.” Joel 2:13 NLT

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24:7 NIV

More from Cami Griffith