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What do you want to do with the prodigal Son? (16 February)

The thought this week has been written Graeme Ross, EBA Regional Minister

The voice on the other end of the phone said, ‘What do you want to do with the Prodigal Son?’

There was a short pause and then encouragingly they said ‘Save’.

This happened a while ago when I was preaching at a church – can you guess what the theme was? I had sent through the PowerPoint file and video clips in advance and the person downloading the files just wanted to check they were doing everything correctly and so they called.

As they read the words that appeared on their computer screen, I was reminded of the powerful and infinite grace and love of God!

I once heard someone preach on the parable of the prodigal son the loving father and they said that the parable was a familiar one to those listening to Jesus, but that Jesus, shockingly, changed the ending. I’ve never been able to verify if this is true or not, but we have all experienced the way that Jesus changes everything and the way that he pours his love and grace into our lives, even when we don’t deserve it?

What do you want to do with those who have hurt you? How will we respond to those who hurt, cause us pain and who frustrate us?

Whilst our human instinct is to retaliate, will we continue to become people who instinctively choose to shout ‘SAVE!’

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t protect ourselves form attacks, but alongside this, our gut reaction, the presence of God within us, the overwhelming love of God welling up inside us results in a passion that those who are broken would be healed and restored.

We have received such grace from God the Father, but will we share it freely with those around us? As we do this, let’s remember that love is for life and not just for Valentine’s Day!