The next set of verses teaches us a lot about who God is, and how much He loves us. They display when the prodigal son returned to his father. The son expected to be scorned, for he had truly done evil, and wasted away all his father had given him. He didn’t expect much from his father. He just knew things would be better near him than far away. He did not expect the actual reaction. Jesus tells us what happened in 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.”
The father responds not in anger, but in love. Not with judgment, but with mercy. He had compassion. This is a great reflection of our heavenly Father. When we turn from our evil ways He can see us even when we are still a great way off from coming to him. He will run to us. It was beneath the man in this parable to run to his son. It was socially unacceptable for so many reasons. This son had disgraced him by telling him life would be better if he were dead. Associating with him made the father seem like less of a man. Beyond that, in order to run in the outfit it was traditional for one such as him to wear he would have had to lift up his cloak, and run in a way that was considered very dishonorable. The father didn’t care. He did whatever he had to so that he could go to his son he thought was lost.
God doesn’t care either. He will come to us. It doesn’t matter what society says about how God should be. It doesn’t matter if others tell us they will not forgive us when we’ve done wrong. Our father is above society. He will run to us, and embrace us when we need him. He will see us from a long way off, and have compassion on us that we do not expect or deserve. All we have to do is turn to him. He will come to us when we do.
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