Encouragement

Colliding With Love

by Terry Barlow
01/25/16
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      Reading the parable of the prodigial again in Luke 15, I am struck as before by the father forgetting his dignity in public (rare in that culture)  and, after glimpsing him in the distance, running to meet his long lost son and showering him with "fervent" kisses as the Amplified Bible has it.  Then to think that God as our heavenly father is " running toward us" to meet us and embrace us and kiss us fervently as we decisively and deliberately turn back toward him and away from our wasteful  wanderings.  (Though, in many cases, they be only mental meanderings.)   As determined and relieved as we are, He is far more eager and enthusiastic in his reaching out to reconcile with us. (To "reconcile" among other things means to be on intimate speaking terms again.)  That image of Him running aggressively toward me with open arms strikes home strongly with me somehow.  He is swiftly closing the distance between us, significantly shortening the time apart.  Loving compassion is ready and about to overwhelm me.  We are moving right toward a most merciful collision whose impact will change us forever!  In this case our elder brother is not sulking.  On the contrary, he has cleared the way for this reunion by paying for all our transgressions and offenses with his very own blood.  The Father has been appeased!