Daddy's Love

The other morning I (Aimee) read the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s a story that is fairly well-known. Are you familiar with that one? If not, I can wait while you go check it out. Go ahead. It can be found in Luke 15:11-32. I’ll just wait here…

 

Ok, so now you’ve read it. Good. I wanna talk about it a little. More specifically, I want to talk a little about the characters in the story: the two sons—the younger, less responsible brother, and the older, reliable brother—and the father.

 

It’s true that the younger son is kind of the “star” of this story, but he’s not the only one of importance. The father and the older brother are just as crucial in what they do and don’t do and what they say and don’t say. It’s just that we see so much of the youngest that we can very easily start to focus too much on him. 

 

First, I need to point out that Jesus told this story to illustrate the point that God rejoices over sinners who have turned away from their evil ways and turned to Him. That is good news if I ever heard it! That’s the Gospel, right there! It doesn’t matter how many times we mess up, or how big we mess up, God will still rejoice and welcome us back with open arms if we turn around and repent. 

 

To repent means that we actually feel sorry for what we’ve done and want to make up for it if we can. And the thing is, we can’t ever make up for it (for how we’ve wronged God, our Heavenly Father), not fully. That’s why God sent His Son to die for our sins. That was the only way to cleanse us. God loves us so much that He decided to take care of the hard part Himself, so all we have to do is turn around.  (Read Hebrews 9:11-28!) All we have to do is recognize that where we’re headed in our sinful state isn’t gonna take us anywhere we really want to go, and then choose to turn to God instead. He takes care of the rest.

 

The younger son in the story went to his father and essentially said to him, “I wish you were dead already so I could have my inheritance now.” Go ahead, read v.12 again and you’ll see what I mean… Do you see it?! I know you’re still alive, Dad, but let’s pretend that you’re dead so I can have my inheritance now.

 

That’s what we do to God when we choose sin over Him. We’re saying that we don’t care about what He’s done for us, or how He can continue to benefit us in the future, we want to go our own way and do our own thing. And the father in the story, just like our loving Father, says “Ok, if that’s what you want.”

The fact that God doesn’t stand in our way when we make stupid choices may seem cruel. But actually, it’s very loving. God never forces our love. He’s not a dictator who says, “Love me, or else!” (And, the truth is, He often protects us from ourselves, we just don’t always notice it at the time.) He allows us to learn from our mistakes. And He lovingly waits to welcome us back every time we turn away. 

 

I want to invite you to spend some time thinking about your own life. How many times have you been the younger son (or daughter), and turned your back on your loving Father? How many times has He taken you back? Or perhaps you’ve been holding back because you’ve been afraid that He won’t take you back. Let me assure you that He will. Every time. Without fail. 

 

He loves you.