My best
friend, who I’ve known since college days, called me the other day. She was
very upset and asked me to pray. Their son, David, had run away from home.
David is 17.
He was severely neglected in his birth home until the age of 4, when he was
placed in foster care with my friend’s family. They adopted him as their own a
year later. The effects of the sort of severe neglect David suffered have
colored his life however, making it difficult to form relationships, and
difficult to navigate life in a socially appropriate way. Despite this he is
very bright.
No one really
knows why David ran away. He was in a loving environment with parents and
siblings who loved him. My friend’s family is quite well-off, so David also had
all the comforts and benefits money affords, including all the medical and
psychological help available. But while they were vacationing on the other side
of the mountains, he emptied his bank account, bought a new phone, and simply
disappeared. After desperately searching for several days, they finally packed
up and went home – without David.
It has been
nearly a week and there is still no word from him. The police have offered very
little assistance – this is a runaway, not a kidnapping.
Because of
David’s lack of social abilities and some of his other difficulties, my friend
is unsure if he can survive alone, and if he needed help, whether he would know
how to get it or be willing to ask for it.
In the middle
of all of this my friend and her family are in agony. The kind of heart-rending
agony that only deep love can cause.
As I have
been thinking about and praying for David and his family, it has occurred to me
that David’s relationship to his family
is not entirely unlike our relationship to God. God reaches out to his people
and graciously plucks them out of a situation not unlike David’s. (Ez. 16:1-14)
He adopts us in Christ, as his own children and offers us all the benefits of
that relationship. Yet like David, we are prone to wander, prone to think that we
know better than God, prone to think our way is best.
Despite all of this, Luke pictures God in much
the same way I see my friend and her family. Despite our rebellion and
stupidity, God is searching for us (Luke 15:1-10), scanning the horizon,
waiting for us to come to our senses (Luke 15:11-32) and recognize that the
yoke of serving Christ will always be lighter than the supposed freedom of the
world around us. The responsibilities and obligations of being adopted children
will always be outweighed by the benefits.
For those of
you who happen to read this post, will you please pray for David’s safe return
and for the peace of God’s presence for his family.
