Taken / Wanted

So I just got back from watching the movie "Taken" with Jeff... It was a very intense movie, and got me to think about some things.

Basically the whole two-or-so hours of the movie, the main character is looking for his daughter. He literally does anything to find her: killing people - including once-comrades, torturing people, crashing a house of prostitution, stealing cars, and breaking into buildings. I'm going to spoil it and say he finds her in the end, but I'm not going to say whether she's living at the end.

So this father flew across America and the Atlantic (from California), all the way to France, to save his daughter from being forced into an underground human trafficking ring. How much more, then, does our heavenly father chase us down to keep us from digging a hole into the grave?
Such a precious contrast - Taken:Wanted as Before Christ: With Christ

As far as being taken, Liam Neeson's character's daughter in the movie was kidnapped, and given drugs to seduce her into "wanting" to be a whore, but Neeson's pursuit and love for his "daughter" opened her eyes to reality.

Consider the poem "The Hound of Heaven," by Francis Thompson. Or at least, some bits and pieces.
"The Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --

"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."


" Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbèd pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy ;

And past those noisèd Feet
A Voice comes yet more fleet --

"Lo ! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me."




" All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :

Rise, clasp My hand, and come !"



Such a creator as we have surely desires our every cell, our every tissue. He chases us across continents, moving obstacles and "things" to reach us in the time He has chosen. As a real father, he knew about me before I could breathe "outside" for the first time. He's not afraid of anything, and will do anything to "get me back" - save one thing. He will not sin. My God is a God of passion and love, and He pursues me even when I am indulging in the "drugs" of the world....