Enough to Let Go

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.  And he divided unto them his living.  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Luke 15:12-13

Love demonstrates itself in deeds.  All the professions of love mean nothing if deeds do not match words.  Our text for today describes a scene which would break the heart of any loving parent.  The young man demands his inheritance and shortly departs to live it up far from any influence of his father.  What is interesting, for our purpose, is the behavior of the father.  He grants the young man’s request.  In essence, he loves the boy enough to let him go.  This is very hard for us to embrace as parents.  We want the best for our children, and we want to turn them from a course which we see will end in disaster.  We see here that Christ, in describing God the Father, indicates that He loves us enough to let us make bad choices.  We see evidence of this all around us, and have to look no further than our own personal experience to know that it is true.  God the Father loves us enough to allow us to make bad decisions, all the while knowing what the consequences will be.  Because He knows the end from the beginning, He also knows that the circumstances will change to bring us back to Him in due course of time.  Today, let us marvel at the love of God the Father that is great enough to let us go.

Our Gracious and Loving God,
we rejoice at the manifestation of Your love.
We praise You, that even though we may go astray,
yet, Your love pursues us, no matter how far we go.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning