The Story That Is Too Good To Be True (But Still Is)

We love a good redemption story. Generally American people love to hear of the bad gone good, the poor becoming rich, or the downtrodden overcoming. We like it because we are a rugged country. A country that prides itself on individualism. A country that believes with a little elbow grease and some perseverance a man or a woman can accomplish anything, can overcome anything, can make themselves anything.

Those are the stories that sell, the stories that pack the theaters. Occasionally you'll hear a story that just can't be true. It is too fanciful, too fantastical, too phenomenal; therefore it can't be true.

Consider the story of the Prodigal Son. The parable mirrors a Christian's fall from grace and God's eager reception when the Christian returns. It also can be applied to the separation of Jew and Gentile, and God's welcoming the Gentile back into His fold through Jesus. Either way the story is just too good to sell. We know a good story and that one stretches the level of credulity. Or at least that is the way many feel.

The truth is that the parable depicts truth. It deals with a loving Father who allows a rebellious child to leave, squander all his blessings, and then when the son comes to his senses, he crawls back to his Father begging his mercies. The Father meanwhile lovingly accepts the child back into the fold, and proceeds to treat him as if he never left. The blessings that he wasted are restored, and he is welcomed back into the Father's house to receive the love that he callously rejected before.

God loves us. Sometimes it is hard to understand why He does (especially when we behave like the rebellious child), but that doesn't change the fact. He LOVES US! He wants us to live forever with Him in Heaven. He will run to meet us, if we but crawl back to Him. It may seem too good to be true, but it is oh so true. God IS Love, and that, my friends, is as good as it gets.