The Walking Wounded: God's Hope for a Struggling MarriageSample

Asphalt and Basketball and Home

You've lived like an orphan, girl. And no one could blame you. You’ve wandered and looked for home, scuffed shoes, soles peeling right when you needed to depend on them. It hasn’t been fine. It hasn’t been fair. You’ve gotten knocked down, laid out on that blacktop more than once. But look at your grit. 

You’re something. 

And now you’re finding home. 

This strength in you is me. For my Spirit fills you. You don’t remember this, but I remind you now: You know when you were in church one day, ten years old, and you asked me to come into your heart? I did. My Spirit came into your heart, and you knew me. You loved me—the love of a child—and that was the first step of faith. And now you’re grown, a woman, and you love me even more than you did then.

You left for a while. My heart broke for you. I looked, awaiting your return each day. I never left you, not in the haze, not under the neon, not in the by-the-hour motels. I was your true Father, waiting for your heart to turn for home. And when you did, my daughter? My feet pounded the pavement, running to you, shouting, waking up the neighborhood at midnight, yelling that you were back. She’s back, she’s back. 

You’re back.

Yes, go on in through the chain links to those kids. When you’re with the children, be asking me, in your heart, how to love them well. You know it, but I’ll teach you. You’ve seen it, but I’ll show you. It’ll be fun. 

You’ll work hard in the paint, drive for the basket, lay it up, nothing-but-that-mother-loving-net, show the kids how to fake it, pivot on a heel—even though the shoe tears. You’ll show them how to play what they’ve got. And you’ll show them how, with me, you’ve got everything. Forever. Now. 

I rejoice in you. 

Exercise & Prayer

Read Luke 15:11–32, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Ask God to show you the character with whom you most identify. Can you relate to the younger brother who squandered all he was given and returned home? Is what the father tells the older brother something you need to hear? Ask God to search your heart and reveal to you what he has for you, what he wants to tell you about your heart, your past, mistakes you’ve made he wants to redeem, and the head-over-heels love he has when you return to his arms and want to be home. 

Father, your love is scandalous and beautiful. You look for me when I leave. And you come running when you see me turn toward you. I don’t deserve your love, yet I am desperate for it. I am desperate for you. Sometimes I know when I’ve turned away from you, and sometimes I don’t. Help me see how you invite me home, how I’ve run away and how you invite me to return. In Jesus’ name, Amen.