Pack It and Come Home!

M

y first year of college finally came to an end.  It had been a rough year, filled with many challenges, both academic and other wise.  Academically, my performance had been less than stellar.  Math, my weakest subject, had taken its toll, I learned that my writing skills were less than desirable, and the only thing that kept me from completely drowning was French. 

Socially, the year had been equally difficult.  I came from a small town where everyone knew everyone else and stopping to speak wasn’t a chore, it was a joy.  But at college, there were people from all over the country and the world who had different ideas, different attitudes, and very different points of view.

So, I rapidly threw my things together and headed home. I called my mom the day before I left school.  I was hastily packing my laundry, all of which was dirty, and I told her that I’d be home the next day.  The dirty laundry really bothered me because I felt it was my responsibility, and not my parents’, to take care of me.  But my mom told me to forget about the laundry, to pack it and to come home!  When I got home, she spent the next day doing my laundry but she never complained or chided me. She was just glad to have me home!

I learned a wonderful lesson about God’s grace from this experience.  I was concerned that my mom and dad would think less of me if I came home with dirty laundry.  I feared they would be disappointed in me and feel as if I had let them down.  What I failed to see was that the laundry didn’t matter to them at all.  I was what mattered to them and dirty or clean, I was their son—period!

In Luke’s gospel we read the story of another son who was ashamed, embarrassed, and fearful that his father would no longer love him.  He had gone far away and squandered all he had.  Finally, when there was no one else to help, he decided to go home, dirty laundry and all.  The son, however had convinced himself his father would no longer accept him so he decided to work as a hired servant.  But this man completely underestimated his father’s love for him.

Luke 15:20 demonstrates this father’s love for his son, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The father saw his son, not a servant. He saw his son, not his dirty laundry.  He saw his son, not a failure.  He saw his son, not a rebel.  He saw his son, the one he loved, not someone who had rejected him.

This is the way God sees us.  He isn’t concerned with our outward appearance.  He doesn’t care about our dirty laundry.  He doesn’t think about rejecting us or turning us away.  Instead, he runs to us, hugs us, kisses us, and welcomes us home.  When we come to our senses and understand that God loves us, that he offers us salvation through his son Jesus Christ, and that he welcomes home all who come to him in repentance then we begin to understand just how truly wonderful God is.  Are you far away from home today?  Are you concerned that your laundry is just to dirty for God to clean?  Follow my mom’s advice—just pack it and come home!