When I came to Christ, I fell in love with the story of “The Prodigal Son.” I have preached on that passage many times, shared it with our children, used it as an example in counseling, and written about it in various Bible studies over the years. That passage in Luke 15:11-32 brings back many personal memories as I viewed myself as that younger son. As the years of being in Christ grew, I learned that every one of us is that Prodigal and that the story was not as much about the two sons but about the manifold love of the heavenly Father.
The vision Jesus created of the Father’s love toward the returning son gave me the truest example of the loving father. Luke records, “But while he [the youngest son] was yet afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Those four highlighted actions gave me my definition of being a father.
Keep in mind, the youngest son literally told his father he wished he was dead (Luke 15:12) since he wanted his inheritance NOW. You don’t get an inheritance until your parents have died. Despite how the younger son treated his father, the father’s love overwhelmed any prior statement, any circumstance, or any present condition in his life. The Father was moved with compassion, he ran, he fell on his son’s neck, and he kissed him. If I had become a loving father as my Mum shared with me, this had to be the only way. Only through the example of the father of the Prodigal could I have come to understand what a loving father feels and what a loving father does.
The Bible is replete with anecdotes and reasoning about how the Father loves us. I did not have any childhood memories of being taught to sing “Jesus Loves Me” like other children, although I did grow up attending church regularly. Instead, coming to Christ in my late 20s, I became an adult learner of Jesus’s love for me. My beloved spouse sings “Jesus Loves Me” to our grandchildren when they begin to fuss or whine in the house. I’m amazed at how it calms them down immediately.
There is something about the Father’s love for us that is transformational. It should calm us, in every circumstance. While the Bible is clear about how the Father loves us, how do we know we love Him? How does one really become sure they love someone else? Is it a guess? A gut feeling? An unusual emotional attachment?
Ambrose Bierce was one of my favorite writers in college. He was a Civil War map man who went ahead of the Union army to map out territory in the South in preparation for battles. While he was away from his wife, she became lonely and started a relationship with another man. When Bierce returned home, he found that his wife wanted a divorce. Bierce became an extreme cynic and published a weekly column of definitions called The Devil’s Dictionary. His entry on love was classical Bierce:
Love, n. Temporary insanity, curable by marriage.
While Bierce impacted me a great deal and added to my comedic personality, I do not want to reflect his cynicism about the nature of true love.
Unfortunately, the question of how we really know we love someone remains shrouded in mystery to many today. The goal of this book is to explain how we can know, for sure, that we love the Father, how we can know, for sure, that we love Jesus. I pray that you will come to know this truth and that you will be assured not only of His love for you but also of your love for Him. May He be glorified through the writing and reading of this book and may many be drawn closer to the Father who has compassion on us, longs to run to us, and loves to embrace us as His own.