In the Night

Two posts in one day....not a normal occurrence, but I'm on a roll, so bear with me! Last night was rough......i got about three hours of sleep before I received a phone call in the middle of the night. Now, I was expecting this phone call. I guess I should back up. I spent about 7 hours at work afterhours because two of my residents decided to take off on their bikes for an adventure. So I had to call the police, file the report, call the families (NOT A FUN THING TO DO!!!) and just wait, and wait. Finally, at around 11:30 I went home, because I knew that they wouldn't be found until daylight anyway. So I go home, and am awaken at 3:30 am with a phone call telling me that they've been found by the police. So I throw my clothes on and head back out to work to deal with them and have them call their families. ( I Can be quite brutal at 4:00 am!...one of them was dozing on the couch when I got there..I told him if I had to be awake at 4:00 then so did he..i'm so mean!)

These boys were mad over something so petty and insignifcant. They chose to run away and return in the middle of the night. They knew that they would get caught trying to sneak back in the house. They knew that they would get caught because they realized that we knew that they were gone. But we were waiting for them. Waiting for them to return safely. Now, I was upset with them. But I was relieved that they were okay. I made them call their parents and let them hear their voice. I could not imagine what those parents were going through....one was just completely beside herself, not sure what she would do if something happened to her son.

How many times do we run away from God and return in the middle of the night? Maybe we think that we won't get caught. But deep down, we know that Someone is waiting for us to return. As I was sitting up last night with some of the staff, talk came to the story of the Prodigal Son. I wonder if the father knew deep down in his heart that his son would return? I know that he thought he was dead, but was there a glimmer of hope still there? He wanted his son back, even if it meant that he returned home in the middle of the night.

God is like that. He wants us in fellowship with Him. He is waiting for us....in the middle of the night.