The story is about a father giving his two sons his inheritance before he dies. The younger son leaves on a long journey and ends up wasting his fortune and goes hungry during a famine. The son decides to return home to his father and ask him to forgive him and have mercy. He was even willing to be a slave to his father. The father sees him and ran to him with open arms and embraced his son. He is overjoyed by the return of his long lost son. He turns to his servants and asks them to prepare a giant feast in celebration and bring him his best robe, a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. For the celebration the fatted calf is killed.
As you can imagine the older son was not happy when he discovers a party going on to celebrate his brother's return. He had been obedient to his father all of these years and his father had never even given him a young goat so he could celebrate with his friends. But the father tells him that he had always been with him and everything he has belongs to him. But they have to celebrate and be glad because his brother that once was dead is alive again, he was lost and is now found.
I think about how overjoyed the father must have been to see his son walking down that road. For a while he had waited and watched everyday waiting for his return and it was finally happening - the happiness and joy he must have felt. I imagine he probably blinked a few times and wiped his eyes to make sure he wasn't just imagining it. And then there is the son who had no idea how his father would react to his return and I am sure he was ashamed of what he had done. But I wonder how he felt when he looked and saw his dad running to him. The relief he felt knowing that his dad still loved him and welcomed him back as if nothing had ever happened.
Just like that parable the same is true for God and His love for His children. Even though we may choose to stray and do things our own way we can never get too far from His love. The song Phillips, Craig and Dean sings "When God Ran" is so true. Some of the lyrics are:
The day I left Home,
I knew I'd broken His heart
I wondered if
Things would ever be the same,
Then one night,
I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road, ahead I could see
It was the only time,
The only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise, It dropped me to my knees
When God ran
I knew I'd broken His heart
I wondered if
Things would ever be the same,
Then one night,
I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road, ahead I could see
It was the only time,
The only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise, It dropped me to my knees
When God ran
God's love and mercy for us is so great that it doesn't matter what we do - God is still waiting for us to come back home. And when He sees His children returning home He runs to meet them with arms wide open. Imagine the celebration in Heaven each time a child of God returns home!
God is always there in the same spot we left Him - each day He waits and watches for His children's return. I am so thankful for God's grace and mercy and that His love is never changing.
