Loved and Forgiven

The most important truth every human person needs to hear is that he is “loved” and “forgiven.” God never ceases to whisper these words into our ears. No evil act we commit is capable of stopping God from loving us and forgiving us.

If it is so, why do we fail to hear it?

It is because we seek to hear these words in the thunderous roars and the monstrous cries we create and manipulate around us. But alas! This gentle whisper can only be heard in the deepest recesses of our being as we resolve to seek our joy and fulfilment in God alone and in nothing else.

Man experiences God as the Provider first.

In the fascinating story of the Prodigal Son, we see that the lost son comes to his senses when he realises that he is missing the meals he savoured at home and that his father's servants are eating much better meals than the morsel of husk he is struggling to grab while fighting with the pigs.

Then it is the experience of being forgiven by God that makes him abide in God. It is by abiding in God and trusting in Him that he comes to know the other dimensions of God. It is this knowledge and experience that transforms him and prepares him for a role shift—from the prodigal son to the loving, forgiving father.

It is also quite possible for a person to leave the Father's home while physically still being there. We could be legalists, scrupulously keeping the rules, and yet completely fail to experience the love of the Father.

We see this in the case of the older son. He also measures the Father's love in terms of food. He says:

“All these years I have been your servant, doing your orders in everything: and you never gave me even a young goat so that I might have a feast with my friends. But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.”

He surely speaks not like a son but like a servant.

Though he has not physically left the Father's house like his younger brother, he too has wandered far from home.

Here, “home” refers to a place where one can clearly hear God telling him:

“You are my beloved, and my favour rests upon you.”

When we hear and become what the Father tells us—that is, “being His beloved”—we cease to complain. We begin to dispense freely to others what we have received freely.

We are ready to endure persecution without desiring revenge. And we can receive praise without using it as proof of our goodness.

As the beloved, we are free to love and give others life, and even die while still giving life to others.

Being the beloved is becoming like the Father and becoming like Christ.

Listen now to God's voice whispering in your ears:

“You are my beloved Son, and my favour rests upon you.” — Luke 3:22