A Father’s Love

Luke 15:20: “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”

This is my Father’s world and it could be anything that He wanted it to be. But thank the Lord, within this world we can find our Father’s love. The Bible tells us that “we love Him because He first loved us…”. There can never be any doubt that He loves you because every time you see a cross it should remind you of his love.

The fifteenth chapter of Luke is one of my favorite chapters because it expresses who our Father is. Jesus is teaching and in Luke 14:15 it says, “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” Who had ears to hear? In Luke 15:1 it says, “Then all of the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” The pharisees and saducees were there but it was those the world had discounted that wanted to hear. 

So, Jesus tells three stories, the first is about a lost sheep and a shepherd who had 100 sheep and He left the 99 to find that one little lamb. When He found it, he put it across his shoulders rejoicing. Then Jesus said, there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who comes and repents than 99 people who need repentance.

Then Jesus tell about a woman and a lost coin that she diligently sweeps her entire house clean searching for it and when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors to come and rejoice with her. He then says there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner who repents.

But then Jesus tells about a wayward boy who ask for his father’s inheritance before he dies, and the Father gives it to him, then he goes out and blows it all.  Then a famine comes and he is starving to death and goes and get a job slopping hogs.  He was so hungry that he was thinking about eating with the hogs.

But then the Bible says, “he came unto himself” and what was the first thing that he remembered? The love of his father. So, the boy says to himself, “I will go to my father and I will say “Father I have sinned against heaven and before you and no longer worthy to be called your son, Make me like one of your hired servants.” 

You see, Jesus is telling us these three stories because He is describing our Heavenly Father. He is that shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes looking for that one lost lamb. He is that women who searches and searches until she finds that lost coin but, in this case, it is the Lord searching for you and I. And He is that loving father that when He saw that boy coming done the road, battered and beaten, and pig stinking from the world, what did the Father do? Yes, that is our Father in Heaven who runs to meet us. Did you notice that boy didn’t get to finish his speech “just make me one of your hired servants”? Because of the Father’s love, we are saved by His wonderful gift of grace.

Pastor Lee Cruse, who has never gotten over the Love of my Heavenly Father.