“’Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’” (Isaiah 1:18, NIV).
A man decided to cross the Andes and settle down in Argentina. I didn’t know if he was forty or sixty years old. The footsteps of a life away from God had left deeper imprints than his wrinkles.
Like many other homeless people, he was used to being looked at with indifference. But that afternoon he stood in front of dozens of attentive faces who avidly listened to his testimony in a small church.
The members of the «Urban Assistance» group had provided help and, above all, hope. That afternoon, he looked at a white wall and cried. The wall projected the image of his mother, speaking to him from a home video.
The man hadn’t heard her familiar voice in six years. Just then, the voice said, “Son, come home. Give your life to God. Stop doing the bad things you ‘re doing. Come home.”
He cried. He wiped his face with certain desperation and didn’t hide the internal turmoil those words caused in him.
The same man who had recorded the video, who had crossed the mountain range, found his home and met his mother, now went up to him to embrace him and repeat the invitation once again.
We felt like we were part of a television program with unexpected meetings, and to our surprise, in addition to hugging him, the man offered to call his mother on the phone. We all witnessed their now live interaction and were able to hear the woman once again saying, «Come home son.»
He joyfully replied, «I’ll be there one of these days.»
His mother added, . . . but come when you’re doing better. Recover first and then come.
I’ve hardly ever seen such a look of disappointment in anybody’s face.
Without pretending to know or judge that woman’s pain and actions, I was left with her phrase and her son’s reaction.
How important it is to remember that God invites us to go to Him just as we are! Today He also tells us, ‘(Son, come home.
Of course, He wants to transform us! But before that He wants us to go to Him. Without excuses.
I don’t I know which of the characters in this story you most identify with. But God’s invitation is for all of us and is still valid. What will your answer be?
