Be Forever Thankful
The love of God is so complete that He doesn’t just stamp us forgiven, pull us out of the pit, and then leave us on the side of the road to figure out what to do next. The American judicial system is flawed in this way. Guilty prisoners receiving pardon are released from jail, the pit, and then expected to figure out life on the outside on their own. Instead, God’s love is active toward us pardoned, released sinners, illustrated so perfectly by Jesus’ story of the prodigal son.
Exhausted, spent, and empty by the years living in sin, Jesus tells us the prodigal walked home alone, hoping for forgiveness and even a scrap of food from his father’s table. Beyond his wildest imagination, this young man—who represents you and me—is welcomed with a shocking enthusiasm. The word crowned means surrounded, encircled, bestowed; so we see the son enveloped in a beautiful robe and then restored as son with a ring on his finger, identifying him as MINE. The prodigal, crowned with lovingkindness and compassion, is a picture of how God sees us, His beloved who return to Him in humility.
I hope you and perhaps your family, too, have made this month a focus on thankfulness and gratitude. But God desires for us to notice and not forget His goodness for much longer than one month. The frenzied pace of Christmas has already begun. Are you forgetting already to be thankful?
“God satisfies your YEARS with good things,” reminds me that God is with me for the duration of my life and my children and grandchildren’s lives after I am gone. He is forever good. He is forever love. He is forever performing the words of this psalm: pardoning, healing, redeeming, crowning, and satisfying His beloved children. You and me.
May you become and remain an effusively thankful and grateful child of the King.