When had his father forgiven the prodigal son?

When we think of Jesus as our advocate are we saying God wants to destroy us but Jesus stops him?

 

A woman dies. She was not a member of the Church of Christ. Her life was difficult. Her father deserted her when she was three. He mother filled the void with a parade of temporary replacements, none of whom wanted her around. Passed from aunt to cousin to grandmother and back again, staying only as long as their patience allowed. Shuffled from school to school, from town to town. She made acquaintances, never a friend. Longing for stability she married young, and poorly.

 

Her husband abandoned her with three small children, no job, and no diploma. Her dreams withered away as she struggled to survive. All her life she'd been neglected, and now she began to neglect herself. Like dominoes falling, bad jobs were followed by worse ones; a poor husband was replaced with abusive boyfriends. Alcohol and drugs sped her descent. When the last domino toppled, she was thirty-two years old, the mother of five, unemployed, and living off the leftovers of neighbors and relatives. That domino tumbled the day she slept in with a hangover and woke to find her youngest daughter drowned in the pool next door.

 

At the funeral she told the preacher she had been abandoned by God. He assured her that God loved her and knew her pain that she was not alone.

 

What if at that point she had died? Did God love her; know her pain send her to hell?

 

She did not die. She lived another five years and according to everyone who knew her life story said they were the happiest years of her life.

 

Following her daughter's death she repented, she turned. She turned from thoughts of suicide, she turned from crippling self-pity. She turned from despair. She turned.

 

She moved to a small town. She found a job. The she found a better one. She bought a car. She bought a house. She made friends, not acquaintances. She made peace with her family. Life wasn't perfect, but she'd turned from despair.

 

A month before her death, she told her son of a new and surprising desire. She told her son "I think I'm going to look for a church."

 

One minute she was at work laughing with co-workers, the next she collapsed. The doctor thought she had a stroke. She was dead before she hit the floor. She died seeking

 

Some Christians believe in clear response to their prayers, she had been drawing close to God. She'd turned from the path of destruction. She'd been asking, seeking, and knocking. Would God invite her to his home, and then slam the door as she stood at threshold. Was it just a cruel joke?

 

In the parable of the Prodigal son at what point is the father running towards the son?  Had the father forgiven the son while the son was still in the far country? Had the father forgiven him even before he turned?