One of Jesus’ most famous stories is of a father and two sons. The story is known as the story of the “Prodigal Son”, but it is more truly about the “Good Father”. In the story, the younger son asks his father for his inheritance early, receives it, leaves home, wastes the money and falls into abject poverty. He decides to return, to beg his father for a role as a servant, which is better than the dire circumstances he has fallen into. The father sees him returning, runs to greet him, ignores his request to be treated as a servant, welcomes him back as a son, and throws a party for him. The older son gets angry about this: it is unfair, he says, to throw a party for his irresponsible brother. The father reassures the older brother that despite his brother’s return, his fidelity remains valued and his inheritance is undiminished. But the father points out it is only right to celebrate the younger son’s return, because they have gotten him back alive.
This story is an illustration of God’s relationship with us. We are the brothers in the story: the younger when we ignore God and go our own way, and the elder when we are faithful but we see God being merciful to people who have behaved badly, and think it unfair. God is the father in the story, and in it we discover three things about him:
1. God is generous almost to a fault: he will give us good things even when he knows we are going to abuse them.
2. God is just and fair: his love and mercy for those who repent does not take away from his love for those who are faithful.
3. God loves us no matter what we do: we never stop being his children and no matter how far we have strayed, he will welcome us back joyfully when we return.
Jesus wants us to know that God loves us always, when we do wrong and when we do right. We should never be afraid to stay close to God, or, if we have strayed, to return to him, because he is and will always be our Good Father, who loves us no matter what.
Copyright 2016, Agapios Theophilus
Agapios Theophilus
Agapios Theophilus is the "nom de plume" of a catholic layman who has loved Jesus from when, as a young boy in the 1970s, he first learned about him. His First Communion, at the age of seven, was the happiest day of his life, and he celebrates its anniversary each year. He lives in a large city with his beloved wife, two wonderful children, and an affectionate orange and white cat. He has no formal qualifications whatsoever to write about Jesus: he writes only because he has been given the great gift of knowing and loving him, and he would like others to come to know and love him too. See Agapios' posts at https://sites.google.com/view/agapios-theophilus and follow Agapios on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/a9apios
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