Return to your Father and He will return to you.

“Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 1:3)”

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘… I will arise and go to my father… And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)”

Every first day of a new year I think, ‘will this be the year when Jesus returns?’ Scoffers will laugh because Christians have been waiting for His return for ages and nothing happens. But delay doesn’t mean something won’t happen – we’re not talking about a watched pot that will never boil! The Timeless God and watched pots are different.

Some Christians will look at everything going on and feel sure this is the year. But Jesus said He will return when we least expect Him to, so watching the news won’t tell us if this is or isn’t the year. Other Christians may think that Jesus is not returning this year. That’s unwise too because He really could return this year.

Surprisingly, there is a Biblical way to be absolutely certain that Jesus will return this year. God says that if we return to Him, He will return to us. You may think this is just a play on the word ‘return’. Its more than that. God will actually return to us when we return to Him and when God returns to us it is no less real than when Jesus returns physically.

Jesus even said that it was to our benefit that He leaves us physically so that Another Comforter would come and live within us. To have God within us is better than having a physical Jesus in Palestine. Being such spiritually blind people we fail to grasp the truth and beauty of this. We think seeing Jesus with our physical eyes will be the greatest thing ever. Yes and no. Yes, it will be magnificent beyond all description. But to have God before us is not better than having God within us.

The human eye is an amazing organ. However, until light enters the eye its a dormant thing. The eye achieves its true potential when external light enters into it. Seeing God in physical form, Jesus, will be wonderful. But it is better for the human soul that the eternal God enters within. When that happens, the soul achieves its true potential and becomes all that it was designed to be, just like when light enters the eye.

How kind, how generous of God to promise us, ‘Return to me and I will return to you.’ Which jilted lover has ever said to a cheating, unfaithful, unreliable partner, ‘No matter what you’ve done, no matter how many times you’ve done it, return to me and I will return to you’? God promises exactly that.

Like the prodigal son, when we finally ‘come to ourselves’ and decide to return to our Father, we find that He is filled with compassion and runs toward us. He embraces us. Our Father kisses us!