GPS: God’s Positioning Service

The children’s book The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown is a story of a bunny’s conversation with its mother. The bunny asks, what if I run away and become this and go here, or what if I become that and go there. The mother’s response is always that she will become something significant in each situation and come after the bunny.

This book makes a great baptismal gift as it shows how God keeps coming after us. God needed to do a lot of going after people throughout time, not just in Jeremiah’s time. God always reaches out to us when we run away.

Can we return of our own accord? Not according to Luther’s Small Catechism. The explanation of the third article of the creed says, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him?” It is always God who reaches out to us first.

God pleads with the people, “I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful? I will not be angry forever.” (verse 12) What an amazing God. No matter what we have done or where we have gone, God will come after us.

Loving God, thank you for never giving up on us and coming after us, no matter where we may wander. Amen. — HRW