In biblical times, if a son would leave home with an early inheritance and embarrass his family by blowing it all, the elders of the city would watch for them to return and meet him at the gates of the city. There they would break a clay pot at his feet and refuse to allow him to return home. He’d be turned away, banished.
For this reason, the prodigal’s dad sat on the porch every day, with his binoculars, checking out the horizon to make sure that he saw his son first. He knew his son would blow it, he knew the kid’s character, he was no dummy. But all the same, he loved his son and waiting patiently to see the silhouette of his boy on the horizon. And when he did, he took off running to meet him, embrace him and return him home before the elders could stop him from returning home!
This is a picture of the scandal of grace. Where anyone else would have turned him away, would have rejected this kid who had so blatantly disrespected his father and was disloyal to him, the dad of this boy refused to let the sin stay in the way of his love. It is the same with us. Nothing can separate us from that powerful, overwhelming love of God. He doesn’t care what we’ve done, where we’ve been and who we’ve been with, he just wants us to come home! It was a scandal to the elders, to village, but even more so to the older brother who had never left his dad’s side. Why was the brother so upset? The voice of religion had spoken to his heart and made him deaf to love…
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