Loved
By Peggy Kleckner
“I will set out and
go back to my father…his father saw him and was filled with compassion for
him…”
Luke
15:18a & 20b (NIV)
Recently,
I have overheard several conversations about people trying to win their
fortunes at the casino or hoping to win the Publisher’s Clearing House contest.
They seem to have no problem accepting the enormous odds against them.
It
makes my heart sad that so many people can believe the possibility is there for
them to win on a lottery ticket or at a casino, but they cannot believe that
God loves them. They have closed the door to their heart and given up hope of
returning to the God who has created them.
Somehow
they have believed the lie that either God is not good, or that He will not
forgive them for whatever it is that they feel is unforgivable.
How
many of us have been tripped up by something “bad” that happened in our life? Someone
close to us died, we lost a job, our spouse left us, our parent abused us…something
that we judged as “bad” happened and we stopped believing that God is good. The
pain of the situation was too great, and we ran from God in anger and in hurt.
We decided to do life without Him.
It
is hard to turn back home again. It is hard to hope that not only will He be
there, but that He will welcome us. It is hard to believe that He wants to
comfort us in our pain, because we know He is big enough to have stopped it and
He didn’t. We had wanted the gift and not the Giver.
The
other stumbling block is just as hard. We failed miserably somehow. We’ve been
cruel to others. We’ve been stuck in an addiction. We lied, or cheated, or
stole from others. Perhaps we’ve been divorced or been in jail. Whatever the
sin or situation, we believe there is no longer room for us at His table.
What
if, in this season of hope, we took the effort to turn around and head back to
our Father’s house? What if we took a chance and went to find out for ourselves
what God has to say to us? What if we opened His Word and looked for ourselves
at who He is and what He says?
What
if He stills loves you? What if He really is good? What if He really does
forgive?
Take
a chance, turn toward home.
GOING DEEPER:
1.
Has someone been inviting you to take a closer look at God lately?
2. Do you have your arms open to receive a prodigal
coming home?
FURTHER READING:
