Tom had a dear kind mother and father, but he was a wayward boy and wanted a taste of the world. One day he ran away from home.
There was great sorrow at home when it was discovered that Tom had gone, and his parents longed earnestly for his return.
Tom headed for the city and tasted “the pleasures of sin for a season.” But the novelty of being on his own and doing as he pleased began to wear off. Thoughts of the love and comforts of the home he had left came back to him, and he was very homesick. He longed to be back with his dear father and mother again.
However, he felt he had treated them so badly that he was ashamed to go back. He began to wonder what kind of reception he would get. So he wrote a letter to his mother something like this: “Dear Mother, I want to come back home. I’ll be passing through town next Friday afternoon. If you would still like to see me, hang a towel on the clothesline. Love, Tom.”
When Tom got back to his home town, he found not just one towel, but the line was full of towels—an indication of the welcome that awaited him.
The sinner, away from God, does not realize the welcome that awaits him if he will only return to the Lord. Scripture is full of pictures by which God would tell of His love for the sinner.
The prodigal, on his way back from the far country, did not realize how great was the love pent up in the father’s heart and waiting to gush forth when the boy returned. For “when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him...” Luke 15:2020And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20).
Dear reader, the Spirit longs that you might know the love of God who sent the Lord Jesus from the glory above into this world to die on the cross to save your precious soul.
ML-04/06/1980