Safe at Home

"where would we go?"

John 6:68

My nephew ran away from home today.

Well, not really "home".  They live out of state, but they are here visiting.  So really, he ran away from my folks' house.

He's young.  Young kids do this sometimes.  I think he disagreed with my sister on whether or not it was time to stop playing his computer game.

My son was sitting out in the living room, near the front door, and then came into the family room where the rest of us where, and informed my sister that her son had just left the house.

So she got up and calmly walked after him.   She went out the front door, and looked in a couple of directions until she saw which way he had gone.  (My folks live on a corner, so there are a couple of options.)

But once she saw him, she just stood where she was, watching him.  And while she watched, he stopped, and turned around to come home and saw her standing there waiting for him.  He walked to her, and simply said, "I can't do this."

His meaning was clear.  I can't leave.  I can't run away.  I can't live without you and Daddy.  And the realization didn't take him long.  While he had his Pooh Bear, his jacket, and a spare pair of socks, he didn't have food, or money, or any knowledge of where to go.

Like the prodigal son, or Peter when Jesus asked him if he wanted to leave, there comes a time when we have to decide which way we're going to go.  And I don't mean left or right, or north or south.  I mean towards or away.  He offers, and we choose.

To choose Him is to choose life.

~ "I have set before you life and death,

blessing and cursing;

therefore choose life,

that you may live" ~

Deuteronomy 30:19

~