A year or so ago, I posted an article about why I love my Savior, Jesus. It has become a popular post for people to find during a google search, which always gives me hope for the society in which we live. It occurred to me last evening while I was listening to an amazing sermon by my favorite preacher that I hadn’t ever written one about why I love my God.
So why do I love God? I know that He loves me; John 3:16 tells me that He showed His love for me by sending His Only Begotten Son to die. And I know that He is good to me; James 1:17 says that every good gift comes from Him. So He loves me and He blesses me, those seem like good reasons to love Him.
But last night, as I was hearing a beautiful retelling of the story of the lost sons from Luke 15, I realized there was another reason I love my Father, and it is because He is so merciful and gracious to me.
In the parable Jesus told, the younger son takes his demanded inheritance and runs off to a far away land and squanders it. He ultimately returns to a father who had been watching for him, as is evidenced by the fact that he saw the son coming even when he was a distance away. The intriguing part of the story, though, is one I’d never considered until last night: what all had that prodigal son put that loving father through?
In Luke 15:25-27 we read, “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.”
Interestingly, in verse 30, when the older son is speaking to the father, he says, “But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.”
How did this older son know how the younger son had spent the livelihood, if he didn’t even know he was back? It’s not as if the older son had spoken with his younger brother and heard the terrible tales of the swine feeding and starvation. So how did he know? Was he just assuming, or had there been stories? Rumors of what this young son from a prominent, wealthy family was off doing? How much shame and humiliation had this young son brought upon his underserving father? It’s enough that he’d basically wished death upon his father by demanding inheritance, but then to subject that blameless family to scorn and judgment for your actions? How hard had this family’s life been while the son was gone?
And yet, the father is seen running and falling before his son. He greets him with kisses and a party! He restores him to sonship no questions asked. When the son shows repentance, the father is quick to grant him that and more; showing the depths of his love for a son who had wronged him.
That…that is why I love God. Because the father in the story is our Father in heaven. He is watching, longing for us to come back to Him. Yet we humiliate Him. We bring reproach upon the name of Christ. We live our lives in a reckless way, squandering the very blessings God gave us. But He loves us so much. He longs for us to repent; to turn back to Him so that He can give us eternal life in heaven with Him one day. And when we do – that’s where the mercy and grace appear. He is merciful not to hold our sins over our heads, punishing us for the wrongs we have committed. And He gracious, restoring us to sonship (or daughter-ship) though we deserve to be slaves, servants in His eternal kingdom.
I am so thankful that this is my God. He is not quick to remember my transgressions, but instead quick to forgive and remember them no more (Isaiah 43:25). This is why I love my God. I love Him because is so, so good to me. Better than I could ever deserve.
