By LARRY STOVER | Praise Park MInistries Church of the Nazarene

Do you remember when Cupid’s arrow hit you and you were in love? There was an emotional explosion inside of you that changed you. Have you noticed that people who are in love do some outrageous and irrational things at times? Love changes us forever.

While this love is important and it brings back many memories for us all, I am more interested in the love that our Heavenly Father has for his creation.

His love is outrageous! There is nothing like it. When God’s grace explodes in your life He shocks you to pieces. The experience of being forgiven is like no other event in our lives. The love relationship we have with God grows and develops reaching into every area of our life. The older we get the more exciting it is to think about that love.

God’s love reaches beyond the penalty of sin and disobedience. He sees our potential and prepares a wonderful plan for our lives. Romans 6:23 sums it up; “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” If justice were served after each act of sin, the earth would be sparsely populated. Instead, our Heavenly Father is continually working to reconcile His creation back to himself through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

This epic scenario is best illustrated in the “Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15. This wayward son takes his inheritance from his father and goes off to another country squandering it on every self-destructing and God dishonoring thing he could think of doing. He winds up tending pigs and is left to eat their leftovers.

Justice has been served! His family had worked so long to achieve their success in life. In a brief period of time, this young man wasted it on wild living. He trashed his life resulting in a deplorable existence with nothing. After inventing ways of getting into trouble, he had shook his fist in the face of God. What a disaster! He makes a decision to go home and seek to become a hired hand living in the bunk house.

His brokenhearted father has been watching for him ever since he left, hoping he would come back home. As the son approaches his home, his father sees him coming. He runs down the road to meet him. Never in his wildest dreams did that young man envision what was about to happen. That delinquent son got a “love explosion.” It was an assault of God’s love, mercy, and grace.

He received his father’s embrace, a ring on his finger, new clothes and a celebration with the family. It was all because of God’s amazing grace and love. Has life left you in a state of hopelessness? Are you at the end of your rope? God wants to stun you with a gift you don’t deserve. He wants to overwhelm you. He wants to send an explosion of love and grace into your life.

He is all about reconciling you back to Himself through a day to day relationship with Jesus Christ. He delights in offering salvation to any and all who would seek Him as their personal Savior.

Wherever you are today, there is still a God who is flowing with outrageous love who wants you to come home. If you are ready to start all over again, I can promise you an experience that will beat Cupid’s Arrow all to pieces. That new beginning will make life “Simply Beautiful.”