“So, he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
“Just embrace me… Just embrace me… Just embrace me…” A worship leader spontaneously sung these words during a time in my life when I especially needed to hear them. I had constructed walls between God and I. Walls of my own sin and consequently walls of guilt and shame. I was a young believer in Christ, yet I had made some poor decisions that were more like my former self than my new Christian self. I knew that Christians could be forgiven for what they had done before they became a Christian, but I wasn’t sure what God did with Christians who sinned. And so, I just tried to keep moving forward as best I knew how, but there were sandbags in my soul, weighing me down. There were self-constructed walls that I was allowing to stand as a barrier between God and me.
And then I heard God speak through the worship leader. It was one of those times when a human is speaking but really you know deep in your soul that God is speaking to you. “Just embrace me… Just embrace me… Just embrace me…” God was inviting me to simply wrap my arms around Him and be with Him. He wasn’t asking me to earn my way out of my sin. He wasn’t asking me to hold onto my guilt and shame as penance. He wasn’t asking me to live as a second-class Christian from here on out. He was inviting me just to be close with Him.
The more I have reflected on this experience, the more I am convinced that this is who the God of the Bible is. He isn’t primarily interested in our sin or in any projects we think we can do to rectify it. He doesn’t want us to hold on to past mistakes or wallow. He wants us to simply embrace Him. For us to be together. This is what repentance is. It is letting go of the barriers that keep us from God - yes even those “holy” illusions that God needs us to strive to make up for our mistakes and shortcomings. Jesus dealt with ALL our sin and shortcomings on the cross. Past. Present. Future. It is finished. There are excuses. No walls that are legitimate barriers between you and Christ. So… just embrace Him.