There are many ways to run away from someone. The obvious and most common method, of course, is to hop in a car or onto a plane and get as much physical distance as possible from the one you wish to flee.

Another method is to simply stay in place and distance yourself emotionally from another person. You can be standing right next to that person and feel like you are thousands of miles away. We all know stories of marriage relationships where this has happened --- where a couple lives together but has given up any attempt at genuine communication and go on to lead such separate lives that they are not even familiar with one another any longer.

In today's Gospel reading we see both methods of running from God. The prodigal son, so named for his extravagant departure, takes his inheritance and squanders it on "loose living." When the father welcomes the scoundrel home with open arms, the older son is appalled. He has done all things right to get his inheritance. Both sons treated their father like he is a bank account from which they can extract funds. The first son asked for his inheritance. The second son preferred to wait to have it offered. But they both had turned the relationship into a transaction.

The father will have none of it. He welcomes his departed son back home, and when the older son is chagrined the father reaches out to him as well.

We all have probably run from God in both ways --- through rebellion and through routine. We may have gone through a period like the younger son, where we felt the good life was elsewhere, only to realize that materialism and greed leave us empty and unsatisfied. And at times we merely go through the motions of being Christian. We attend church, even perform ministry, but we are not getting closer to God because it has become mere habit.

The father in the parable wants both sons to know how much he loves them. He does not count the dollars he has spent on each one, but gives to both lavishly and freely. This is the kind of relationship Christ offers us. We are so unaccustomed to unconditional love that we tend to either want to hoard it and keep it for ourselves, or resist it because we cannot believe it is for real.

Lent calls us to examine our lives to see how and when we tend to resist God's love. We might be running away in some way, or we might be stuck in some dull routine. God offers us far more than a transactional relationship. We are promised devoted, personal love. We only hurt ourselves when we resist this offer.

The Father is waiting, scanning the horizon for us to return if we have run away. He is also ready to give us all that we ask for if we are with him now. The great symbol of God's unconditional love, Easter Sunday, awaits us.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.