A Father's Love

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”Luke 15:31-32

This parable of the lost son, is such a touching story. It is about a son that has taken the wrong path in life and then when he hit rock bottom, he realized what he had done. He realized that it was not about the riches of this world but it was about finding out what was really important in life. He was lost in the world of pleasure and excitement – and at the end of the parable, he returned to the loving safety of His Father’s House and received the father's unconditional love. Isn’t that also the other story behind this, is that we may have once been lost children, living away from the Father and sometimes we had to hit rock bottom before we see the truth and return to the Father. Once we may have been dead in the Spirit and then we are born again and are alive in the Spirit. We were lost and now we are found. At first, the story began to speak to me about a wayward child that returned back to his home and was reunited with his father. Then I began to realize there was a bigger story that Jesus was trying to tell us. That was about the lost children, those that are not saved and that these "lost" can also return to the Father’s love and to a promise of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We may not have to hit rock bottom, but we may be living in the world and seeking the pleasures that the world gives us. This is so far away from the Father! I was once on that same path and when my eyes were opened as I returned to church and there I found the Father that I had wandered away from and I knew I needed to come home. I found the Father’s love, the love that did not condemn but that accepted me just the way I was and I was cleaned up like the Prodigal Son and was accepted back as His Child. I was lost and then was found...I was dead and now alive in Christ. Let us celebrate this Easter season for many of the lost children to be returned to the Father’s home. May those that were lost, be found...those that are in the world, they turn and run back to the Father’s loving arms!! No matter if you are saved or unsaved, we can all learn something from this parable, we can turn from our own ways and return to the Father. Make that course correction today! He is waiting for you with open arms.
Question: Have you wandered away from the Father's love and need to return?