One of the most beautiful scriptures in the bible to me is describing the love of a Father to his child.
This is after the disobedience of the son.
"And he got up and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him.
" How amazing is the indescribable love that parents have for their children.
I think of my son.
The joy I have for him and how I love him.
When someone asks me about him I light up and tell them how he is such a blessing to me.
Don't we all? Think a moment.
What is your child like? See you are thinking about something good, aren't you? When someone asks about our children we do not think about the times they have done something wrong or disobeyed us, do we? No, we think about the blessings they have been to us, we can't help it, they are our children! Of course the scripture above is Jesus sharing the parable of the prodigal son.
I love the description here, "And he got up and came to his Father.
But while he was still along way off, his Father saw him...
" Wow! Isn't that great - that tells me that God is always looking for us, when we sin or lets even say we backslide, God's eyes do not come off of us.
He is looking, always wanting us to comeback to Him.
Even though we may think we are a long way off we are right there in God's eyes.
Amazing! But here is the most beautiful part of the scripture.
As I write this it moves me thinking of Gods love for me for me, a sinner, not worthy, undeserving, "and [GOD] felt compassion for him, and RAN and embraced him, and kissed him.
" See as undeserving as we may think we are our God runs to us and he hugs and kisses us, I believe to tell all of us, no matter how our life is in chaos or turmoil, welcome home in the biggest way He can! Can you imagine that? Our God in heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth, The Great I AM, runs to us! Friends we are made righteous through the blood of Christ.
We are worthy and we have a loving God that is always there for us.
He is not some angry God up in heaven looking down and saying, "Ugghh, there they go again, messing up, sinning!" No, I believe our God has His arms wide open ready to embrace us when we fall.
There is a word for it, grace.
Remember Christ died for us to have that 2nd chance that is the majestic beauty of the cross; mercy and grace.
When we slip, don't think that there is an angry God ready to let you have it.
Yes we have to be corrected sometimes and we might even miss God's "plan A" for us.
But what child doesn't need to be corrected.
We correct our children because why, we love them.
Just like it says in Hebrews chap.
12, "he disciplines us for our good..
..
" Hey and guess what, even though way might miss God's "plan A" for us "plan B" won't be too far off from the original plan.
See as the parable continues, Jesus tells us that the Father went on and placed a robe on His son and a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, then he went on to prepare a feast, even though the son was disobedient.
And that was "Plan B!" Do you mean, even if we veer off course God will still bless us, absolutely.
(Jer.
29:11) What great scripture.
God is so good about painting pictures for us that parallel our lives.
No matter what our children have done we love them unconditionally, don't we? Yes - so when you mess up, slip, or fall don't look up at an angry God, but go before a loving father who runs towards you with his arms stretched out, waiting to hug and kiss his child and say its ok, everything will be alright, I love you! Yes, I think God loves his children.
What do you think?