Prodigal love (Dr. Tom Neal)

  Hardest of all…is the love that allows people in our lives the freedom to rebel, to reject, to run away from us; from what we stand for; from truth; from God.  The love that forgives, that seeks forgiveness.  In the prodigal son story, the father did not guilt or shame or condemn the selfish son at his departure or upon his return.  He patiently waited, he quietly suffered, he secretly pardoned, he loved him from within the distance, even as the father stood his ground and hoped that the memory of a home and heart full of love would one day draw his son back.  And when the son returned, while the elder brother gripped tight to his manipulative and self-righteous rage, the father ran and embraced, celebrated and danced.

  It’s truly the parable of the cross and Resurrection, of prodigal love – and of its opposite.

--Dr. Tom Neal, 

If You Love Somebody, 

Word on Fire 

Image source: Marc Chagall, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 
https://wonderingfair.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/chagall-return-of-prodigal-son.jpg

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