The Plumbline

  So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20) I was struck with a thought this morning about the father. The father never gave up on his son, though there was little sign that he had any intention of being 'made right' again. The father never gave up watching, though the road was long. The father never lost the intensity of love for his wayward son. I wondered for just a moment if God the Father was looking with such intensity of love for his Son's return to heaven's realm - if he stood, arms outstretched, heart filled with love, and took Jesus into his embrace. All that Jesus had endured, all he had experienced, not because of his own folly, but because there was absolutely no other way for US to know that same embrace unless he did! We all experience the folly of sin because we are all sinners.

If you have never read the story of the prodigal son, it is well worth the read. I go back to this story periodically because I need to be reminded of the intensity of God's love and sacrifice on my behalf - when I least deserved it, as often as I need it, and without condition.  As a point of reference, here is the scenario in a nutshell.  A son, heir to his father's inheritance, doesn't want to wait for his father to "kick over" to get his "share" of the family treasure.  So, he demands it of his father - taking what he gets and squandering it on living just as he wants.  When it is all gone, he finds himself homeless and penniless.  He is forced to take care of pigs - something a good Jewish boy would never do as these were animals considered unclean.  To top it off, he even eats the pig slop to stay alive.  One day, at the end of his rope, he considers what he should do next - amazingly, he considers home as his option!  It should come as no surprise