chiseled stone . . . Nothing between us and God, our
faces shinning withthe brightness of his face.
And so we are transformed much like the Messiah,
our lives becoming brighter and more beautiful
as God enters our lives and we become like him."
Henri Nouwen, in his book, "The Return of The Prodigal Son", says,
"If the only meaning of the story (Luke 15, The Prodigal Son) were that people sin but
God forgives, I could easily begin to think of my sins as a fine occasion for God to show
me forgiveness. There would be no challenge is such an interpretation.
I
would resign myself to my weaknesses and keep hoping that eventually God
would close
his
eyes to them and let me come home, whatever I did.
Such romanticism is not the message of the Gospels.
"What
I am called to make true is that whether I am the younger or elder son,
I
am the son of my compassionate Father. I am an heir. . . . as son
and heir I am to become
successor.
I am destined to step into my Father's place and offer to others
the same compassion
that
he has offered me.
The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to become the Father. . . .
"I
know how much I long to return and be held safe, but do I really want to
be son and heir
with
all that that implies? Being in the Father's house requires that
I make the Father's life
my
own and become transformed in his image."
What
grace our Father extends to each of us... with this invitation that we
can become
like
Him! I am overwhelmed with the thought that God thinks so highly
of me, has such
high
hopes for me, that He loves me so much that He is actively working to transform
me
into
His likeness.
What
a God. What a Savior!
\O/
Alex