And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Luke 15:21-22
I have always loved Luke 15, for the pursuit for what we love: the shepherd after his lost sheep, the woman for her coin, the way the father rejoices when his son returns home. But last night, I noted something completely different about the parable of the prodigal son, about the incredible way the Lord relates to us, His people.
We mess up all the time; it's nearly impossible not to recognize our own failures and unworthiness. In some manuscripts, the prodigal son asks to be treated by his father as a hired servant, not a member of the family. We too, come crawling back to God, wounded and desperate. And he far surpasses our petitions and expectations. He not only picks us up, but He turns us around and sets our feet on solid ground. He doesn't just fulfill our most basic needs, He gives us the fullness of His blessings!
It's amazing the ways the Lord blesses us. But most of all, He gives us Himself. Try as we might, we can't find joy outside of Him. What a God we serve who delights to fulfill our hearts.
“The reason why it can never succeed is this: God made us, invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” C.S. Lewis
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
Psalm 40:2
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