1. God cries for prodigals, too.
He wept over Jerusalem, which he longed to gather to his breast, and he wept over adulterous Gomer, whom he wanted to heal and restore. God weeps for your children, too.
2. God is sovereign over rebellion.
Jonah was running hard away from God.
Hard.
But God saw him, pursued him, chastised him, and won him back.
“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up” (Jonah 1:3-4).
“. . . But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights (v. 17).
God knows exactly where your child is, and he can engineer circumstances large and small to pursue him and win him back. Sometimes it’s the goodness of God that leads our children to repentance, and sometimes it’s his judgment. We can trust God to know which is most effective.
