Run to the Open Arms of God

My highlight of the week is when we welcome the kids back to camp after a long day of school. Every Monday we sit by the door waiting to hear children’s voices coming down the street from the yellow school bus. Once the bus stops in front of the Church, the race begins to see who will be the first one to the doors. It warms my heart to see the kids joyfully run towards the Church calling out our names in greeting and genuinely excited to come to “camp” (KIC program).

In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus told the parable of the “Prodigal Son”. There was a father who had two sons. The youngest son demanded his share of the inheritance and went to a faraway country in which he wasted all of his wealth on wild living (vs 13). After he had spent everything, he hired himself out to a pig farmer as he was in need due to the severe famine in the country. Yet the longing for food he came to his senses and decided to return to his father as he saw that the pigs were eating better than him while he was starving to death. The youngest son remembered his father’s character and generosity towards his hired men and decided to humbly return to his father to work for him. While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. The father ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him in an abnormal display of affection for a man of his status. The youngest son demonstrated a genuine heart of repentance when he said “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (vs 21). Every time I read this parable I am in awe of the father’s unexpected response as he welcomed his son home with open arms and organized a celebratory feast proclaiming that “My son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (vs 24).

Perhaps John Newton who wrote the song “Amazing Grace” in 1772 summarized best how the prodigal son must have felt in his father’s warm embrace. To be fully loved and fully forgiven by a compassionate father who is abounding in grace. Yet we are all like the prodigal son who has turned our back on God. We need to recognize how broken and sinful we are yet not remain in slavery to sin because God’s grace covers all our sin.

“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
  Was blind, but now I see.” 

We are saved by Grace through Faith in Christ alone. This amazing grace that we did not earn nor deserve is freely given to us if we are willing to accept it. We can run towards our loving Father whose arms are open wide, waiting for us to repent and be saved. It doesn't matter what we have done in the past, we can come back to God who is waiting to receive us just as we are.

My prayer is that our kids will run with a greater joy towards our loving father whose arms are open wide, waiting for them to repent and be saved. We pray that our children and families may know that they are not “too bad” or “too far gone” to be loved by God.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

- Hebrews 4:16