When you look at a group photo that you’re in, what’s your first reaction? If you’re like me, you go immediately to your face and pick apart your flaws in the photo: “My glasses are dirty. My shirt collar is sticking up.” 

In Luke 15, Jesus told his listeners the story of the prodigal son. When we read that account and think about the picture it portrays, we can get caught focusing in on the sons and their flaws. The younger son says, “Dad, I want you dead; give me my inheritance.” He leaves home to blow an entire fortune only to hit rock bottom. The older son also feels entitled and cheated that he doesn’t get a party or a steak dinner with his friends.

But our focus is off. In this picture, we are those brothers. We run from God. We go wild in sinful actions. We blur the truth: “We would never live like that!” Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, we feel because of all we’ve done, God owes us. The unfiltered truth is that we are owed hell!

Thankfully we can take a second glance to see someone else—the father and his continued looks to the horizon for the wayward son. He shows compassion and underserved love for BOTH sons. That, my friends, is our Father! By punishing his Son, grace, love, and compassion are ours. What a beautiful picture! “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1).