When we - like Jonah run from God this is what the bible calls sin.  When God - pursues an underserving sinner, the bible calls this Grace.  Often we mistakenly think of God's gracious intervention in our lives as being harsh or unloving.  The reality is when WE choose to sin, WE choose to suffer.  God will allow pain in our lives to steer a runaway back toward him, back toward home.

God intervenes in our lives:

Not to pay us back

But to win us back...

to bring us back