Balloons, cake, and friends? Sounds like a party to me! Over the past few months, I have attended a birthday party for a child, an anniversary meal, and a couple of weddings.
Each one was unique! They had different food, different sizes of guest lists, and different activities. But each one also had something in common: joy. The people we were celebrating were pleased, of course. But it was also a time of joy for us, the guests!
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He often taught people using stories. Several of them include a celebration, but there is one story that amazes me more than any other. It’s about the most unlikely celebration of all. In this story, which you can read about in Luke 15:11-32, there was a father who had two sons. The younger son asked for his inheritance early, even though his father hadn’t died. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he soon left his family and his home to live a wild, reckless life. Eventually he ran out of money and had no choice but to get a job feeding pigs. Things were so bad he actually wanted to eat what they were eating!
But one day he remembered what his father’s home was like. He decided to go back and ask his father for mercy. All he hoped for was to have some food. As he got close to home, he was surprised to see that his father was running to meet him. All the son had time to say was to admit that he had sinned, but then his father interrupted him. He called for new clothes for his son, and for food to be prepared. A big celebration was starting! The father excitedly described it this way: “for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24). And they began to celebrate.
It seems strange, doesn’t it? The son did not come home a hero. There was nothing special - or even good - that he had done. Why would the father celebrate?
This story is a picture of how God looks at us. We are like the son. The Bible tells us that “your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2). You might think that God would want nothing to do with people who have disobeyed Him. But this is what He says about Heaven’s celebration: “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
Imagine that! God and the angels are filled with joy every time a sinner turns away from their sin and calls on the Lord Jesus to save them. Are you still lost and away from God? He is ready to save you, and He wants to celebrate with you!
Photo credit: Llalyque
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