[Return] to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon.
—Isaiah 55:7
Dave Short’s sermon on the Hosea story was beautiful. That good man’s concluding compassionate words were touching: “Come home. Come home.”
I drove away that morning thinking of the long-range impact his message is destined to have. Someone who was in that assembly will, at some point, go prodigal. But Dave planted a seed-thought in that person’s psyche with those unforgettable two words: “Come home.” The message will outlive the messenger.
Some distant day, the wanderer will remember Dave’s words and hear our loving Lord’s plea: “Come home, dear child, come home.” And they will turn their sight and their steps toward home.
From whatever far country the prodigal occupies—the prison cell, the addiction, the fractured relationship—the wanderer can come home.
Come home, dear child, come home.