Favorite Place by Jenn Fromke

Do you have a favorite place? When I was a kid, I loved my backyard. We moved a couple times, so I remember a time in my teens when I decided to drive by one of the old houses. I couldn’t believe how small it looked, and unfriendly. As a six year old, it had seemed huge, and warm. And when I strained my neck to see into the back yard, I noticed my favorite old swing set had been removed, probably rusted out years ago. Big, bushy trees blocked the view over the fence toward the train tracks. Those poor people now had to sit at the kitchen table without being able to count the train cars as they passed because of some lousy, overgrown trees, for cryin’ out loud!

Needless to say, I felt empty and a little bit sad. I went back to visit my old place and found it had changed. It did not meet me half-way, so to speak.

Zechariah 1:3 says this: “’Return to Me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you.’” I read this a few weeks ago, and the New Testament came crashing into this Old Testament prophecy. The prodigal son returned home to his father, and “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son. . . .”

I cannot get enough of this picture in my mind. When we change our direction, heading back in the right direction, God meets us on our way. In the Old Testament, He told Israel to return to Him and promised He would return the favor.

So the empty feeling I had when I saw my old house, will never happen when I turn myself back toward my eternal home. Sometimes I’ve turned away from that home for a few minutes sometimes a few days . . . sometimes longer. But every time I turn my heart, my head, my whole self back toward my new home, my father throws open the door, comes running down the driveway and leads me to my favorite swing in the back yard (and there’s no rust on it, either).