"Granny, hearing of your great age, I have come to see you.”
"Granny" grunted. She was evidently in no genial mood. Notorious in the village for her great age, and her hard, almost ferocious heart, the newcomer, a stranger in the place, had ventured in the hope of reaching her soul for the sake of Him "Who cutteth out rivers in the rocks," and whose "Eye seeth every precious thing.”
"Granny" sat on her stool in the chimney corner. She offered no chair to her visitor, and as the mud hut was not inviting with such a reception, after a few more remarks, saying she would call again and just catching the surly, "You can if you like," her friend departed. "Granny, I have such good news for you!”
There was her visitor again. Granny looked surprised. It was not often "good news" came to her. She offered her visitor a stool this time. Her friend sat down and without comment read the 15th of Luke's gospel. She read on, and bye-and-bye looking up she saw the large tears falling down the dark, not over clean, time-wrinkled cheeks. Still she read on.
"But when he was a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
Granny's great, hard fist came down upon her knee with a heavy thud, "I never heard the likes of that before.”
Reader, have you? We read and hear of almost foolish ones. But have you ever heard of such love, such wisdom?
"While he was a great way off.”
That watching father knew at once, in spite of the rags and the "hang-dog" step, that it was he. Aye! God knows you dear one, whether starting off with the gay, quick step of independence to the "far country," or returning, weary and wretched, having "spent all." Do you think the elder brother would have known him? I don't.
"And had compassion and ran.”
He did not sit still to see if he was really penitent or not—to prove him. No. "He ran." Be sure no sin-burdened soul crying out for salvation, has ever run as swiftly to Him as He runs Himself. If you are going towards Him, even slowly, lingeringly, with the "Buts" and "Ifs" of doubt and fear within your heart, you will soon meet Him for He is ever "Seeking to save.”
"And fell on his neck.”
He did not give him time to say his say. Love shuts his mouth. God knows our worst.
He sees the heart with eyes that miss nothing, sees the soul black with the sin that cost the blood of His precious Son, and He knows what that sin will bring; "The wages of sin is death.”
If the Father had waited for him to speak, he would only have shown how little he knew of the Father's heart.
"And kissed him.”
With those arms about his neck, and those kisses on his cheek do you think any "buts" and "ifs" remained? When the soul has no plea, but "I have sinned," then God's love can flow out. No matter the rags and the plight, it was the returning heart the Father wanted. No matter what, or who you are, dear reader, it is yourself God wants, just as you are.
"Granny" was saved and changed. She saw Christ in His beauty, revealing the love of God, and had the joy of sitting at His feet; and then went in to be with Him whom she had kept out of her life so long.