Good Friday-Extravagant Love
When I was in first grade my mom had these beautiful purple high heels. They weren’t stilettos but they had just enough height where she was able to get me dressed for school, drop off and be ready for work in one quick motion.
One day I was waiting in the school parking lot (pick up and drop off) with some classmates. I don’t remember where my teacher was but she was there with us lol. As my mom began to approach, I remember waving and jumping with excitement because I saw her in the distance and was ready to go home with her. As she got closer, one of my classmates made a comment about the lady in the purple shoes. Truth be told, I don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was enough to make me pause. The only thing I really remember about her comment was,“she ran over my lunchbox!” If I really think back to that memory, it seemed like my classmate’s mom and my mom maybe exchanged some words or frustrations during the morning drop off. My classmate left her lunchbox on the ground and of course, my mom pulling out of a parking space did not see it. Welp, no lunch for my classmate!
I remember looking at my classmate with full confidence, a smile and boldly stated, “The lady in the purple shoes, that’s my mom!” I wish you all could see the shocked look on her face. For a first grader it was a full on look of horror. I happily got my teacher’s attention, pointed out that my mom was walking towards us and proudly SKIPPED away into my mother’s arms with a full embrace. When I tell y’all I actually skipped, I mean I skipped towards my mom just happy glad lol. I was so unfazed by what happened with my mom in the morning. I was just glad to see her and wanted to be with her. I didn’t need to know all the details of what happened in the morning, I just knew I was proud to have her as my mom, she was there to pick me up from school, we were going home to do homework and then feast with some white rice, pink beans and fried chicken.
I had a different blog post written and ready to post for this morning, but this story randomly came to mind. As I was writing it down and replaying the memory I began to think about the Prodigal Son. Now hear me out or read this through before you dismiss it.
In the story of the Prodigal Son, the son leaves home and goes to live his life. He takes his half of the money (trust fund) and lives very freely. The Bible says in Luke 15:13, ”Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” Everyone may have a different idea of what wild living is, but I think we can all agree that wild living consists of nothing with a good outcome. After some time the son has used all his money, is living in a country that is having a severe famine and literally eating from a pigs pen, he comes to his senses and decides to go home. With the decision to go back to his Father’s house, he works on a speech to ask his Father to accept him back home. He plans to tell his Father, he is no longer worthy to be called his son and to treat him as a servant (Luke 15:13-19). Those verses right there tell us that his life was so bad that he was willing to be a servant. It also shows how much shame, rejection and maybe event disgust he had with himself.
As the son is walking home, the Father sees his son in the distance. The Bible says, “And he arose and came to his Father. But while he was still a long way off, his Father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (Luke 9:20).” I absolutely love that the Father has compassion and then runs to His son. The Father is unfazed by everything else, but is moved out of compassion. Compassion by definition means to recognize the suffering of others and then take action to help. Compassion embodies a tangible expression of love for those who are suffering.
I can only imagine how the son physically looked and smelled as he was going home. I can only imagine how he was feeling, yet his Father moved out of compassion and ran to him. It didn’t matter how the son looked or smelled, but he embraced his son because he had finally come home.
Today is Good Friday. What does Good Friday represent? It represents God the Father’s love for humanity displayed in the most extravagant way. Jesus’ crucifixion was violent -that’s part of the extravagance. The extent to which He loves all mankind. God promised a Savior (Jesus) from sin, that all who believe (trust in, rely on, adhere to Him) will be saved from the penalty of sin. It represents the compassion the Father has for the world He so tenderly created. Compassion that caused Him to move and send His only begotten Son to die a brutal death on a cross.
What I love about the Prodigal Son’s story is how the Father ran to his son. He saw him in the distance and just ran which was undignified for a Jewish man to do during that time. It didn’t matter what the son had done. It didn’t matter to me what my mother had done. It didn’t matter how long the son had been away or why he was coming home, the Father was just glad his son was home. Just like our Heavenly Father is glad to see us coming home.
I was so happy to see my mom. It didn’t matter what anyone had said or what had happened earlier. I was so excited to see her and proud to see her. I was going to confidently let my first grade classmate know that was my mom, smile and skipped my way right to her.
If you’re reading this and don’t know or believe in Jesus, that’s okay. Welcome to On Fridays, We Clean and know that the God of the universe is absolutely besotted with you. He loves you with a love that we’ll never truly understand because of our flawed understanding of love. He wants you to get to know Him and He’ll wait for you. You don’t have to be afraid of Him. Don’t believe the lies that He’s a mean God, pointing His finger at you and condemning you. He loves you and is waiting with open arms to embrace you with unconditional love. You can give Him a chance. Give Him a chance to show you who he really is, not what people have told you, and experience Him for yourself.
We love you, Jesus and I.
