So where did it all start?
I love to think about the situations where decisions were made. So let’s look at where it all began. One day God was sitting at the front of His house with Jesus and the Holy Spirit; they were having a chat. They had everything they ever wanted, no matter what their desire was, and the angels were there to just sort out anything that they requested.
The angels had been created to never question what they were instructed to do. But Father God wanted more. They wanted to create children who would make up their own minds to love and be loved. God wanted to create men and women in His own image, that He could share His dreams with and be family with them. So He had to create us with free will and God said it “was good”!
But in the middle of all of this, we know that eventually the most beautiful angel, the worship leader Lucifer, decided that he wanted to be worshipped. He wanted to take the place of God, his creator. He did not want to be a servant, ruled over by this God’s creation, called Man and Woman. And so, in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer twisted the understanding of Adam and Eve so that they both decided to sin. Lucifer’s only aim was to separate men and women from their Father, God. He only wants to hurt God as much as possible because he wants to break the control of God and take His place. However, even though Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, God still provided for their needs by providing clothes for them before they left the Garden. And God continued talking and sharing with them throughout their lives.
How much did He love us?
Prodigal son / Loving Father
Did you know that God has had a plan for us from before we were created? Father God is outside of our time but He still wants to be involved in our lives. In Psalm 139:13-16, it says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. God knew us before we were born, He walks with us throughout our lives, and He knows everything which is going to happen even unto the end of this world.
One of the most beautiful stories which Jesus shared with us is in Luke 15:11-32, and in many of the older translations, the story is called “The Prodigal Son”. But in the newer translations, it is called “The Loving Father”. In days gone by so many stories were told as if we were the centre of the universe, this is a bit like how our understanding of the planets has developed. Up to the 15th century, it was believed that the earth sat still and all the other stars rotated around it. But Copernicus was one of the first scientists to realise that we rotated around the sun.
So it is the same in the story in Luke 15. The young man wanted to go and explore the world, but he made mistakes even before he walked out of the door. Whenever he said he wanted his inheritance, he was effectively stripping half of the money out of his father’s business, and in that process, he was saying “I don’t care what you have done for me and I don’t care if you survive”. That was a massive slap in the face for his father. But what was the action of the father, his father looked out for him every day just hoping that the son would survive his journeys. Every day the father probably prayed for his son, asking God to look after him. He loved him and wouldn’t let go of him.
So as the father looked out for his son one day he saw a figure walking up the road. The father knew it was his son coming home. However, there is one issue that is not detailed in the story. If the father had waited for the son to walk up to the front door, then the son probably would never have made it because all of the villages knew that the son had insulted the father and probably would have stoned him before he got anywhere near his father’s house. The world will never forgive you for any mistake, but our Father will always come running to show love and care, and understanding if you only take one step towards Him. Father God will always love you no matter what your mistakes.
To be continued!
