The Father Who Never Stopped Leaving the Porch Light On

In 2019, a journalist in Nashville profiled a man named David Chen who had kept his front porch light on every single night for eleven years. His daughter, Mei, had left home at seventeen after a bitter argument, severing all contact. Friends told David to move on. His sister said he was torturing himself. But every evening, David replaced the bulb if it flickered, swept the porch steps, and left the door unlocked.

"She probably doesn't even remember our address," his neighbor said once. David just shrugged. "She's my daughter. I taught her to ride a bike on this sidewalk. I carried her on my shoulders through the park across the street. You don't forget that."

In year eleven, Mei came home — broken, exhausted, expecting a locked door. Instead she found the light on, the steps swept, and her father asleep in the chair by the window.

This is the heartbeat of Hosea 11. The Almighty says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms." Israel wandered. Israel forgot. But God's compassion was aroused, His heart recoiled within Him. He refused to act on the heat of His anger because He is God, not a mortal — the Holy One among us.

The porch light of heaven has never gone dark. Not once.