Making Up is Hard To Do

Isn't it "Breaking Up is Hard To Do?"  Only in song, my friend.  In life, it is the other way around.  In our sinful world it's too easy to walk away; just look at the divorce rate and the single parent statistics in the United States and you'll see just how easy it is.  However, making up is a whole different can of worms.  As I spend my days in pain, I wonder why there are times I have a hard time going to God in prayer?  Why are there days I feel separated and don't feel like I can approach the throne of God?  I have found that sinning is easy, but returning to God seems so hard.  What have I forgotten?  One of the most beloved and well known of all the parables of our Lord:  The Prodigal Son.


How does that help?  Because it is one of the most intimate portrait of the Father's love for us.  You remember the story.  The youngest brother of a wealthy land owner takes his inheritance (before his father is dead, mind you) and spends it on hookers, booze, and false friends.  After it's all gone, he is working in the worst place a young, Jewish man can find himself in; he's feeding pigs, an unclean animal, and they eat better than he does.  Here he realizes his sin.  Not just because he's broke, but because he's broken.  He knows that he wasn't just stupid with money, he was wrong to his father, his people, himself, and his God.  When he takes the long road back to his father's land, he only wants to be treated as a slave, he knows he isn't worth any more than that.  However, his father runs out to greet him.  He puts his son in a beautiful robe, puts a ring on his finger, and hugs and kisses him.  The father throws a huge party because his son, wayward though he was, came home and is back where he belongs. 

  So, making up wasn't so hard for him?  Not for the father, but the son was trying to tell his father how unworthy he was.  We are not told the son forgave himself right away, and we hear that the older brother even became angry.  Making up is hard for sinners.  I know,  I sin, and when my pain gets bad, when I feel like I should be able to do more than I can, I sin even more!  I get angry, I think I know more than God, I even want what I want without thinking about what God wants.  How could I possibly "make up" with the Father if I didn't have the words of Christ showing me just how much the Father loves us?  Like the prodigal son, I must first admit I am broken, a sinner.  Then, I have to confess that sin to my Father in heaven.  I know that nothing I do will ever make up for what I have done, or do.  If not for the cross, for that saving grace of Jesus; ordained by the Father, how can I have a relationship with God?  I can't.  

So why is it so hard for you?  Because I don't deserve it.  Because like the prodigal son, I don't expect it.  Because I can't forgive myself.  How can God, who is all Good, all Loving, forgive my filthy, stubborn sin?  Because He's my Father.  He gave me life, and wants me home again.  Can anything else humble a man more than being loved when he doesn't deserve anything more than to feed swine as a slave?  Throughout the entire Bible, we see the love of God in action, but for some reason it took this story in Luke to bring it home for me. If this is how my Father in heaven wants to embrace me when I confess and repent, than who am I to stay with the pigs?  Making up will always be hard to do for those who cannot forgive themselves.  Is that what God wants though?  Was the cross only for some sin?  No.  We must be obedient in all ways and run to our Father, broken and discouraged, and he will clothe us and hold a fest for us.  I guess making up isn't really that hard to do!