Last night I was listening to a sermon stemming from the famous Biblical parable of the prodigal son. Basically, the first part of the parable is about a son (the younger son) who asks his father for his share of the inheritance so that he can go live his own life. At that time, asking something like that meant that to you, your father was as good as dead. So, the sons goes off and wastes all his money in wild living and soon finds himself working in a farm feeding pigs. Things got so bad that he even felt like eating the pigs' food. Under such dire circumstances, he decides that he is gonna go home and beg his father to forgive him and make him one of his servants. As the younger son makes his way home, the father sees him from afar, is filled with compassion, and runs to embrace him. He clothes his son and throws a party to celebrate his return.

As the pastor continues the sermon, he comes to a point where he shares this profound insight: the father's relationship with his rebellious son is not based on the son's behavior or performance, but rather, it is based on who the father is. In other words, my relationship with God the Father is not based on how I behave and act, but rather, on who God is.

Oh, how freeing this truth is! Oftentimes, I walk around with a heavy burden of guilt and shame for the things I have done to grieve God's heart. I beat myself up over those things and soon I begin to think that I am no longer worthy of approaching God and of being loved by Him. All I see is the ugliness and filth within me, and I begin to doubt that a holy and righteous God would desire to fellowship with someone like me.

The pastor's statement was a great encouragement to me because it reminded me that no matter how horrible the sins I've committed, God still loves me because HE IS LOVE, and He cannot deny Himself. Yes, He loves me because He is love, not because of what I have or have not done. And as I ponder this, I cannot help but to desire to bow down and worship Him.

Oh! Don't we all long for such love? such unconditional and constant love? More often than not, our relationships with each other are based on behavior and performance. Our relationships are a means to an end. We form relationships with each other based on what we can get out of it, not for what we can put into it. God, on the other hand, wants a relationship with us for what He can put into it, not for what He can get out of it (for He has no needs). We all long to be loved for who we are, with all the baggage we carry with us. We long to be loved when we are at our worst. God, and only God, offers such kind of love and all we have to do is open our hands to receive it. And once we do, we'll never be the same.