LISTEN ONLINESitting with friends over lunch, artist Charlie Mackesy noticed one of them, a father, hugging his son in a gesture of pure forgiveness. It was such a tender embrace, full of redemption and acceptance, that Charlie saw in it the bigger picture of God the Father’s forgiveness of us. Deeply moved, he asked father and son to repeat the movement, and from that observation, he created his now-famous paintings and bronze sculptures entitled “The Prodigal Son”. Wanting to connect the visual with the Bible story, he included the following as part of the etched border: “This is the story of the Prodigal Son. It should really be called the running father . . .”
Abundant, reconciling love pours out of the painting. We’re told, “But even while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him” (Luke 15:20). In Jesus’ time, this was utterly counter-cultural. The father surely would have stood at the gates, stately, dignified, waiting for an apology. Instead, he runs to the son who betrayed him, embracing his child. The father’s love for his son—God’s love for us—is total and unconditional.
Whenever we are feeling distant from God, or guilty for what we have done, we need to return to this image. As Charlie himself said, “If we can . . . for five seconds a day . . . dare to believe that we are loved that much by God, everything changes.”