A Father's Embrace....

1.27.11

Luke 15:20

"...he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

How important can an embrace of a father be to a child? Do you know how much it can mean to someone who needs it more than anything in the world. When I was a little boy my father would sometimes travel for business and nothing felt better than the day when he would come home and I would rush into his arms and give him a big hug. I remember one specific time when my mother took me to the airport to pick up my dad after a week away from home. When we got to the airport and to his gate I was so excited to see him I ran to the gate and grabbed his leg and started hugging. There was only one problem, when I looked up I noticed that it wasn't my father's face I was staring into, it was the face of someone I didn't recognize. Like any four year old would I yelled "Hey you're not my dad banana nose" and ran away screaming. My father quickly caught me and said gave me a big hug. At that moment I had never felt more comfortable, I had never felt safer in all my young life. My father's hug was the only thing that could calm me down at that moment.

Sometimes in our lives that is exactly what we need. We need to be safely secure in our heavenly Father's arms. We have to feel comfortable and sound in our Daddy's embrace. That is exactly where our Heavenly Father wants for us. He doesn't want us to be away from Him for a minute, but the truth of our lives is that we will leave him, we will turn away from Him. We are sinners, but how great is it that we can go back to our Father anytime we want. How ever greater is it that He will run out to meet us and embrace us as a loving Father no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done.

Your heavenly Father is waiting for you to come back to Him daily and spend time embraced in His arms. There is nothing more comforting that no matter what we deal with, no matter what hurts us, the Father's embrace can comfort us.

I love spending time with the Lord, but for some reason whether it be laziness or distractions, I go through stretches where I don't spend time with God for several days and even weeks. Every time I have one of these stretches I honestly feel like the son that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the prodigal son. I feel distant from God, I feel far away from Him. I feel, like the son, that I am trying to do things on my own, in my own way. But than I make the time to go back to the Father and I feel so amazing loved that I can spend time with Him again. I can feel His love embracing me. My encouragement is this, if you are far away from the Father, or you are feeling like you you can't feel His embrace get alone with Him. Spend time with Him and let His embrace fully engulf your heart. Let Him hug and kiss you like a Father, take the time out of your day to feel safe in His arms.


Thought question:
When you haven't been with the Father, what do you miss most about Him? Do you miss His embrace, do you miss the safeness of His arms?