Article December 16, 1985 Issue

When the Father comes out to meet you

STEPHEN GOTTSCHALK

One reason people respond so strongly to the parables of Christ Jesus is that they always are framed in terms of believable human circumstances. As Bible scholars have pointed out, this in itself helps communicate the powerful "good news" of the gospel Jesus brought: that the kingdom of God is literally present, so through obedience and love one can come into the realization of His presence right here, right now.

This could hardly be more feelingly conveyed than in that climactic point in the parable of the prodigal son See Luke 15:11–32 . when the son, after his long sojourn in "a far country" and after he at last "came to himself," made his way toward his father's house. "But when he was yet a great way off," Jesus tells us, "his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."

There are few such touching moments in all world literature—religious or otherwise. But the amazing thing is that this vividly imagined human situation also corresponds with our deepest intuitions about what it means to experience the grace, the mercy, and the power of Love. For the father didn't wait until the son had crawled every step of the way back with the last ounce of strength that was in him. He ran out to embrace him as his own.

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