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Familiarity with something can sometimes make us lose sight of what makes it unique. This is certainly the case with one of Jesus’ most famous parables He ever told: the parable of the prodigal son. It’s the story of a young son who asks his father for his inheritance, takes the inheritance, and then leaves home and squanders it all. When he realizes what a terrible mistake he made and now having nowhere else to go, the son returns home in shame and humiliation. He anticipates having to ask his father for the position of a hired hand, as this is the best he could expect to get from his dad. But that’s not what happened!

As the young man approaches the home, his father sees him, and, feeling compassion, he runs to greet him. There may not be anything that sounds unusual reading this now, but when Jesus was telling the story, those hearing it would have been scandalized. For a grown man—the patriarch of the family—to hitch up his robe and embarrass himself by running out to meet a son who had disgraced him as he had was shocking. Jesus told this story as a way to convey how strong God’s love for us is, and He does it by showing the great love of an Earthly father for his son. While we all probably have some form of dysfunction or pain attached to our family experience, this story Jesus told shows us how big, dramatic, and beautiful God’s love for us is.

We have a Heavenly Father who is willing to hitch up His robe to come after us, show His great love, and stop at nothing to make sure we know how valuable we are.