“He got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran, embraced, and kissed him” Luke 15:20
Heavenly Father, I’m not in a faraway country—derelict, destitute, and delusional about finding life apart from you. Neither am I an angry, jaded, mean-spirited legalist—who finds pleasure in judging others. Yet, at times, I feel like a hybrid of your two sons whose stories are given to us in Luke 15.
Sometimes my heart can drift to a place of temporary insanity—fantasizing about finding life in mere humans, fulfilling fleshly pleasures, and living with zero regard for your Word and ways. Then, in the same day, I can give in to my inner-Pharisee, and judge everything and everyone, even people that are already dead. I can even criticize you, when you don’t give me what I want or think I deserve. I. Am. A. Mess. But, hallelujah, I am your mess.
So, Father, as I come to you today—with many who join me in this prayer, we take great comfort in knowing that we’ll always find you filled with compassion for us—no matter the state of our heart. As with all your children, you greet us in the Gospel, throw your arms around us, hold tight and shower us with multiple kisses of mercy and grace.
Why? How? Because you don’t love us to the degree we are like Jesus, but in Jesus—which is 100%. You don’t make light of our current sin, but that you do make much of Jesus as our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Such kindness makes it easy for us to repent, and makes our call to holiness beautiful, and makes the Gospel so necessary and so glorious. So Very Amen.
