RICH MAFFEO
Come home

I didn’t intend to eavesdrop. I doubt they even noticed me as I leaned against the wall. The family was focused too closely on their private ordeal to pay attention to anyone else in the airport terminal. When they reached the row of seats across from me, they stopped. The daughter lowered her travel bag to the floor.

“There’s still time to change your mind,” her father said softly.

The young woman, probably in her early 20s, nodded and turned toward the glass wall. Her plane waited at the gate.

“Call us when you get settled,” the mom said, breaking the tension. “Let us know how you are.” They looked at each other. Both tried to smile. The dad slipped his hands into his pockets and stared at the passing crowd. I felt relieved for them all when, a few moments later, the ticket agent’s voice broke over the loudspeaker, “We will now board rows 20 through 28.”

“Well,” the dad sighed as he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Take care of yourself.” His voice caught. “Call if you need anything. Come home whenever you want.”

She brushed a kiss to his cheek, hugged her mom for a moment, looked once more at her dad – and walked away.

Why was she leaving? For how long? I don’t know any more about the family than what I heard and saw during that brief interlude at the terminal gate.

I do know, however, what is for me the most important part of the story. Her mom and dad wanted her to stay. Even to the last moment, they hoped she would change her mind – and they made sure to remind her that she would always be welcomed home.

As they watched their daughter disappear down the corridor toward her plane, my heart suddenly caught a sense of another Parent’s pain; and I wondered: How often does God, the heavenly Father, stand before one of His children and plead, “There’s still time to change your mind”? How often does He say, “I wish you wouldn’t go”?

And how many of them return an awkward smile – and walk away into the corridor of self-righteousness, of sexual immorality, pride, witchcraft, gossip and a host of other rebellions against God?

Yet the most important part of that story is this: No sin is too dark, no violation of His Law too deep, that Jesus Christ’s blood cannot wash it away. Again and again God says, “Remember, you can always come home.”