Forgiveness

Today, I was reading Luke 15 which includes the parable of the lost son and I started to think about forgiveness. I don't know how you could read this passage and not think about forgiveness because, to me, it seems like one of the best examples the Bible gives. To a degree, I can understand the youngest son. When you're young, life seems so exciting and so full of possibilities and you just want to go out and try everything all at once! And that's just what he did. He convinced his father to give him his inheritance, not thinking about the future, so he could go out and live for the moment. I imagine his life motto was somewhere along the lines of  "Carpe diem!" - Seize the day! This is a pretty popular thought...why worry about tomorrow and responsibilities when I can have fun today? Although this seems like a pretty great thought to a few people, it never works out well. The young son goes out and lives it up, has the time of his life, and spends all of his money. And then all of the sudden, he has nothing. No friends, nowhere to go, and nothing to eat. It says he gets a job feeding pigs and is so hungry that he wishes he could eat what the pigs are eating. That sounds pretty desperate to me. Then one day, he realizes that his father's servants have it better off than he does so he should just go home, apologize, and beg to be one of his father's servants. Now, the Bible doesn't elaborate on this point, but think about it. I cannot even imagine how desperate my situation would have to be in order for me to do that. I don't know if this young man struggled with pride as much as I do, but for me to have to go back and tell my parents that I severely screwed up my life and to beg them to let me work for them, would take an extremely desperate situation and a whole lot of pride swallowing. But, that's what he did. I'm sure he was terrified of his father's response. He had to have been ashamed and nervous as he was walking up to his father's house expecting to have to fall on his knees in forgiveness and beg. But, something completely unexpected happens. His father is standing outside and sees him coming and begins to run towards him! If I was the son I'd be thinking, "Oh no, he's running so he can punish me faster!" But it was the complete opposite. He threw his arms around his son and kissed him and while the son is trying to apologize he's ordering servants to bring him clothes and prepare the biggest party ever! WOW! Can you imagine how astonished the son was?? And what a beautiful picture of forgiveness. If I was the father, I'm sure I would have handled it differently. I at least would have sat the son down and made sure he knew how bad he had screwed up and made a plan for him to fix it, but the father acts like it never even happened. He doesn't care that the kid wasted all his money, he only cares that he has his son back.
I love thinking about this story and putting God in place of the father and me in place of the son. God has accepted me into his family and given me an incredible inheritance...eternal life with Him! But, I'm pretty stupid. Sometimes, things in this life catch my eye and I'm willing to give up my inheritance to have a little fun, or to do something my way instead of God's way. It sounds soo dumb when you think about it in hindsight, but it happens to everybody. So I go out and have fun and do my thing and when life gets hard and I realize how stupid I've been, I run back to God. And instead of God punishing me and turning his back on me like He should, He forgets all about it. He gets so excited to have me back in His family that He throws a little party with His angels....all for me!! Like seriously, how incredible is that?? Now, some may read this story and think they can get away with whatever they want and it'll be ok because God will forgive them. That is taking advantage of God's grace and I don't believe He'll honor that. But, this story shows that no one is out of the reach of God's forgiveness. It doesn't matter what you've done or how bad you've screwed up..He doesn't care! He just wants you to be a part of his family again. So no matter how far away you are, run back to God. I promise He'll accept you with open arms. And I promise, He'll throw a little party for you in Heaven :)