Set in concrete

A while ago I had the opportunity to visit one of the houses that I lived in as a boy. The house was for sale, and the real estate agent had an "open-day", so I took advantage of that, and joined a few others wandering through. The occasion brought back a flood of memories; oddly the house seemed much smaller than I remembered. 

I looked for reminders of the time that we had spent living there, but could find none… until I walked along a concrete path that my father had made. There, etched into the concrete were my initials, and the date that I had scratched them into the still wet concrete.  

Seeing that reminder of the past caused me to reflect on the fact that about the only part of me that still exists from that date in 1958 is those initials! Everything about me has matured and changed… nothing more so than my view of Father God.

Growing up, I was taught to define God with nouns such as Omnipotent and Almighty, and adjectives like distant, unfathomable. I was taught to view Him as an austere and remote Being; I have learnt however, that because God loves us enough to let us go, God, in the process chooses not to be all-powerful and almighty. God gives us freedom and thus the power to thwart (at our peril and cost) the divine will and purposes for our lives.  

Robert Raines, author and minister, told about walking along a road with his son one day, when the lad asked, “Dad, do you suppose anywhere in the world there is a sign that says ‘Trespassing’?” Raines asked what he meant. Said his son, “See that sign that says ‘No trespassing’? Is there a sign somewhere that just says ‘Trespassing’?”

By loving us enough to let us go, God has, in a sense posted “Trespassing” signs that we are free to heed, although God would rather have it that we did not. But God cannot force us to follow or choose for us the “No Trespassing” signs. Thus, unless God were to change the mold and create puppets instead of persons, calling God Omnipotent or Almighty is, in this sense, misleading.

As I have experienced more and more of the vagaries of life over the years I have come to understand and better appreciate Jesus’ parable sometimes called “The Prodigal Son”

I have learnt to regard this parable from a father’s point of view… The late German theologian Helmut Thielicke suggested that we should call this the Parable of the Waiting Father… and this parable gives us deep insight into the “Fatherhood” of God.

The God of the Old Testament shows aspects of His nature where things are set in concrete. Judgment was inevitable, sometimes swift, and usually fatal… The God of the New Testament shows us His loving characteristics, and the parable of the Waiting Father reveals a depth of love few of us can fully appreciate.

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” 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. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” And they began to be merry. Luke 15:18-24 NKJV

This is what God’s amazing, wonderful grace is all about. It is love more concerned with redemption than judgment. It is grace from God who says, “You’ve been woeful enough and endured enough, just being away from home. Welcome home, where you are loved and accepted!”  

** Republished and updated from October 2012.