One of our first assignments at Bible School was to do a creative reflection on the Father heart of God using the parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’ (Luke 15:20).
I chose to use a video story, depicting a girl who carelessly treats the vase she’d been given. Eventually it breaks and, despite her best efforts, she realises that she can’t put it back together herself. Finally, in despair, she returns the broken pieces back to the creator/gift-giver.
This parallels wonderfully how we, like the prodigal son, turned our back on our heavenly Father and disregarded Him. I think it is the same in our lives. God gave us this beautiful world and made us in His perfect image, but we destroyed that beauty and brought brokenness into our lives. But, there is hope – we read in the parable of the prodigal 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” – Luke 15:20
In the same way, our heavenly Father loves us so much that he was willing to take our broken pieces by sending his Son to die on the cross for us. Through His death and resurrection, we can return to the Father in our brokenness. He welcomes us back with open arms and restores our soul.
As the vase ‘got fixed’ in the video, golden strands were added in the restoration process, so when the light shone through, the vase became more beautiful than before.
Even though we still carry the scars of sin, when we return to the Father, He pours His love and grace into our lives, so that His glory and beauty can be seen through us and we find ourselves restored and embraced.
This is the Father heart of God.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” – 2 Corinthians 4:7
