I’ve been thinking a lot lately about (and hearing a lot about) this idea of coming back. Coming back to God, coming back into grace, coming back into where we are supposed to be. A friend brought it up the other day and made the very good point that no matter how far we stray we can never outrun God. We can never get so far away as to make it impossible to come back. He is always right there, right behind us just waiting for us to turn around. As we finish up the Easter season I want to make sure that I keep that truth in front of me, for myself and for others I meet. He is always right there. I am a big analogies girl and the picture that immediately came into my mind when I read this was the image of Mario running up that staircase to nowhere on Super Mario. Do you remember that one? From the Nintendo 64 version, there is this door he opens and it’s a staircase that literally will just keep going and going and there is never a top, nothing up there. But the minute you turn around to go down the stairs the bottom is literally right there. You could make Mario run up those stairs for a solid hour and it would never take more than two seconds for him to be back at the bottom. I think this is a really good picture of how it is with us and God’s grace. No matter how far we run after empty, unfulfilling things, He is always there (just a step away) ready to forgive and to welcome us back. Most of us think of it as this long recovery (and sometimes it does take awhile for us to deal with the sin in our lives) to get back to God, like it will be an equally long time to get back as it did for us to get to the messed up spot we’re in. But it won’t! Because He stands there with the door open ready to welcome us back in right away when we repent. All it takes is for us to turn around.