"Granny, hearing of your great age, I have come to see you.”
Granny grunted. She was evidently in no genial mood. Though the old lady was notorious in the village for her great age and her hard, almost ferocious heart, the newcomer, a stranger in the place, had ventured to visit her 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. The mud hut itself was not inviting with such a cold reception, and the visitor received only silence for her few remarks. Finally, after saying she would call again, she heard the surly "You can if you like!" From this unfriendly atmosphere the kindly intentioned visitor 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 caller sat down and without comment read the 15th chapter of Luke's gospel. She read on, and by-and-by looking up she saw tears streaming down the dark, withered old cheeks. Still she read on.
“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.”
Granny's great, hard fist came down upon her knee with a heavy thud. "I never heerd the likes o' that afore.”
Reader, have you? Have you ever heard of such love, such wisdom?
“While he was yet a great way off.”
That watching father knew at once, in spite of the rags and the "hang-dog" step, who it was. 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.”
“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." No sin-burdened soul crying out for salvation has ever run as swiftly to God the Father as He runs Himself. Are you going toward Him, slowly, lingeringly, with the "buts" and "ifs" of doubt and fear within your heart? Be assured you will soon meet Him, for He is ever "seeking to save.”
“And fell on his neck.”
He did not give him time to finish his speech. Love shut his mouth. God knows our worst. He sees the heart with omniscient eyes; He sees the soul black with the sin that cost the blood of His precious Son; and He knows what that sin must bring: "The wages of sin is death.”
Had the father waited for the lad to finish speaking he would only have proved how little he knew 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 freely flows 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. She had the joy of sitting at His feet, and then went in her great old age to be with Him whom she had kept out of her life so long.