welcome

When you think of God, what expression does he wear?

The gospel says that He looks at us with a loving gaze of a Father and smiles as He sings over us.

The gospel of Luke tells us a story of a son who squandered his inheritance for fast living, drink and women. While in a pig pen eating the slop, he had a revelation. He decided to return home and live as a servant to his father. He reasoned that the servants of his father’s household lived a better life than he was at the present moment. So he set off on the long return trip home.

Did he practice his story all the way home? I have sinned. I won’t even live in the house... I’ll live with the servants. Daddy, I’m so hungry and so tired.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:20.

The son fell into the welcoming arms of his Daddy. “Here the mystery of my life is unveiled. I am loved so much that I am left free to leave home. The blessing is there from the beginning. I have left it and keep on leaving it. But the Father is always looking for me with outstretched arms to receive me back and whisper again in my ear: ‘You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.’” writes Henry Nouwen in The Prodigal Son.

This Advent, I relish in the truth that although I am prone to wander into pig pens, my Father welcomes me home. And because he has welcomed me, I can welcome Him into all areas of my stony heart. He warms it and massages it making it a heart of flesh. I can welcome others home because He has welcomed me.

The expression on His Face is a warm smile as He scans the horizon looking for lost sons.

Comments

[susan]

Beautiful.

[Jenn]

I adore this. God is good to us all. The scanning of the horizon lays me low. I cannot fathom such love.