Have you ever considered the language found in the 15th Chapter of Luke, verse 20. And 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. But when he was yet a great way off.

I'm made to think of a passage of scripture found in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4; But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Can you imagine for a moment of how far off we were when God first saw us?

This son that the father saw when he was afar off had always been a son. There had never been a time in his life that he was not a son. Even in his disobedience he was still a son. Have you ever noticed the love that the father had and has for the son? As we view the story of the prodigal son we can see the grace of the father toward this son. We can see the anticipation of the father looking for the return of his son. I can only suppose that the father did not just look up one day and just happen to see his son coming down that old dusty road, but this text indicates that he was looking for the return of his son. That he would stand and look day after day after day to see if his son was coming home.

Have you ever wanted to just go home? Have you ever gotten tired of being away from home and knew that if you could ever get home everything would be all right. Just to think of the word home carries the thought of a permanent dwelling place, a place of rest, a place of comfort, a place that a weary traveler can have peace from the things of the world. It is a place that you can feel secure in the place that you dwell that is home. This is where the family abides. This is where those that you love most are. This is your father’s house. This is the place that the father’s stands at the door looking for us to arrive at home safely.

The father was not thinking about how bad his son had been, or of how he must have looked coming down that road. I can only visualize that he must have been a sore site to look at after eating with the swine of the world and wallowing with the pigs. His appearance must have been somewhat gross. Dirty, nasty and half clothed, but the father had a love for the son. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found and they began to be merry.

Do you realize today that our Father is in heaven looking at us from afar off even when we were dead in sins, yet he hath quickened us together with Christ, {by grace ye are saved} And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He is still looking at us from afar off, yet he is looking at us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Do you understand that we are just a traveler in this world that this world is not our home; that our home is in heaven with the Father and his only Son Jesus Christ? We are on our way home, we don’t know how long it will be before we arrive there, but we understand that our life is just a vapor compared to eternity and when we get there the Father will be there waiting for our arrival. He will receive us with open arms, he will embrace us, hold us close and say welcome home my son. I saw you afar off and I sent my Son Jesus to get you and here we are together. All that I have is yours. You might have spent all that you had in the world that was not your home. But I saw you afar off and brought you onto myself. Oh! How thankful we ought to be for such a love of a Father to us sons.

Thank God for delivering us from ourselves. One of the writers that I was reading after put it like this. We have been delivered from rags to riches, from eating the hush with the swine to the eating soul food from the masters table, from pollution to purity, from disgrace and shame to honour and glory, from endless death to endless life, from a sinner to a saint, from a temporary home to a permanent dwelling place not made with hands eternal in the heavens. This ought to be shouting grounds for the child of grace.