“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 ESV
I sat on the ground, staring into my pink, Women’s Devotional Bible, reading that day’s message. Sitting in the park that Sunday morning felt like a better use of my time than sitting in a pew of an unfamiliar church, ruminating on my unfamiliar life. I was living in a new community all by myself, estranged from my husband and family because of choices I’d made, trying to figure out how to fix the mess in and around me. I needed Jesus so badly, but how could He love me in my current state? How could He honor my current condition? At that very moment, I sensed Jesus saying, “Come home. I love you, and I am here with you.”
That moment lingered in my mind for the next several days. Each day, I picked up that Bible, trying to determine how to “come home.” Just a few days after that moment in the park, my husband reached out to me, asking if we could talk. He said he wanted to reunite and to work together on restoring our marriage. He told me about a Bible study he’d been attending, and how one man in the group shared the Gospel with him and invited him into a true, saving relationship with Jesus. He wanted us to start attending church together. I wanted that, too, but I discovered over the next several weeks that my idea of a good church differed from his. I was looking for a good choir and friendly people. My husband was looking for correct teaching of the Bible.
One day we decided to play a round of golf together. The golf starter asked if we would mind pairing up with another couple, and we agreed. In between tee shots and putts, we shared some friendly conversation with the couple, and after a while, they asked if we had a home church. We said we were looking but hadn’t found one, and they suggested we attend theirs. To my delight, it was a church I’d been reading about in the local newspaper. For weeks, I thought, “I should go there,” but somehow the visit never happened.
We attended services the next week, and we both loved it. I enjoyed the music and thought the people were so friendly! Dave loved that the pastor taught straight from the Bible. Later that week, while Dave was traveling out of state, I was seated in our living room when I noticed three people walking toward our front door. I recognized a couple of them from the church, and I was really excited to talk to them. One of those people was a woman named Lisa. She told me that they were just stopping by to see how we enjoyed our visit to the church and to answer any questions we might have. Lisa then asked me what I was looking for in a church, and she knew by my answers that I didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. The next day, she called me and asked if I would like to have dinner with her sometime. I said yes, believing that this might be a way to make a new friend. God had much bigger plans than just friendship.
I sat in amazement as I listened to Lisa tell me about herself. Just a few years prior to our meeting, Lisa had walked through circumstances with her own husband that were nearly identical to mine. She walked through the same struggles, the same shame, and the same efforts to fix it on her own. Then, a friend invited her to church and shared the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ, and Lisa became a Christ-follower. How crazy that I would meet a woman who knew exactly what I had experienced, but who also found Jesus. I soon discovered there was nothing crazy about it. Our dinner was orchestrated by my Father God, and while I was “a long way off” in sin, He was working to restore the life of His prodigal child.
After our dinner, Lisa gave me a book by author and Bible teacher Kay Arthur called Lord, Heal my Hurts. I nearly devoured the pages of that book, and I discovered that Kay not only shared a similar journey to Lisa and me, but also that God was offering me another invitation: to receive the gift of salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, who had died on the cross to pay the penalty for all of my sins, and who’d conquered death through His resurrection from the grave. The moment I read those words of invitation, I went face down on my bedroom floor, surrendering my life to God. And for the next several months, Lisa poured her heart into discipling me and teaching me about the Bible.
Dave and I ended up becoming active members of that church where God introduced me to Lisa and to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We even became members of the very visitation team that Lisa had been a part of, the one that visited us. We joyfully answered people’s questions and offered them the Good News of Jesus. Eventually, Dave’s company transferred us, (several more times, in fact) but we’ve remained in contact with Lisa and her family. We each can attest to the transformation God has worked in our lives and the lives of our families, fueled by His great love for us.
He loves you that way, too, friend. Are you seeing His invitations? Have you said yes to them, or do you somehow think you are too far off? Please turn to Him. Even if you feel far away from Him, like I once did, He loves you and, more than you can think or imagine, He wants to restore you.
— Linda R. Maynard for The Sublime Soiree (C) July 2025
