Reckless Love

admin August 21, 2020 1 Comment

Luke 15:22 TPT

“Turning to his servants, the father said, ‘Quick, bring me the best robe, my very own robe, and I will place it on his shoulders. Bring the ring, the seal of sonship, and I will put it on his finger. And bring out the best shoes you can find for my son.

“The parable of the lost son” as it is known is such a powerful story. For a long time, I thought the theme of the story of the Prodigal Son was forgiveness. This message seems apparent from the son’s self-confession in the pigsty and the father’s consequence response when he returns home. However, the more I studied the parable, the more I am convinced that the core theme is grace. The father gives the son his inheritance, even while he is still alive which is a great act of dishonour, yet the father never refused him. The boy got his inheritance and went away from home.

I picture the father walking daily from his home to the small hill where he could look down the road and see for several miles. He always thought, and hoped, that he would see a familiar figure heading his way.

His thoughts were always the same—a mixture of longing, of hope and of regret. When he failed to see what he’d hoped, he would turn and go about the business of the day. There was always work to be done. But there was also the empty place created by the one who a long while back had chosen to leave and go far away from his home.

The lesson here is this, there have been numerous times in our life in which we have felt that we had surely wandered too far away from God. Some times we would tell ourselves that even the most loving father would have grown tired of our various antics by now. But the good news is through the years of my relationship with Jesus, I have come to learn that he is not impatient, that he does not mind waiting, and that he does not give up on our return. Our text speaks about God’s perseverance and His reckless love when it comes to his children. It reminds us that the Lord does not judge our travels, but instead celebrates our return.