God is Love.
Such a simple statement and at the same time, the most powerful of all statements. God loves us for ourselves and not for anything we can do or give Him. We cannot cause God to love us more, or less, than He already does. Yet we live in a performance-based culture, causing us to think we need to earn God’s love.
The story of the prodigal son is one of my favorite stories in the gospels. Three persons are highlighted in this story:
- The younger son, who wandered, squandered, and returned.The father restores all the rights of sonship, so that he loses nothing despite his wrong choices.
- The older brother, who had remained faithfully with his father, had a problem with the grace extended. Sometimes we can be just like the older brother – stuck and smug in our self righteousness, forgetting out God is gracious to all.
- The father who extends forgiveness, grace, and love in spite of all he had experienced.
In my life, I have been the prodigal, the one in need of God’s forgiveness and grace. I have also been the older son – wanting to begrudge God’s grace and celebration of another. And I have been like the father, having to embrace and forgive.
The story helps us to see ourselves. We can see and recognize the depth of God’s love, mercy, and grace extended to our own lives. We see modeled for us the very manner in which we are to treat others.
While we learn much about ourselves from this parable, we can more so learn much about our God. Won’t you join me HERE at Woman to Woman Ministries and let’s discuss this parable more fully.
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
Today I may be joining … Remember Me Monday and InstaEncouragements.
