Let Yourself Be Loved

Yesterday's snow, still clinging today to the branches, highlights our torn and bent and broken trees.  They help me think about the prodigal son.
The father's gracious love is so prominent for me in the story that I have to push myself to think about the son.  His leaving home is headstrong and hurtful.  Having made such a radical break with his father, he returns home only reluctantly.  He can't believe in his father's gracious love.
A teenager told me once that she wasn't afraid of God but she didn't trust him. While many of us have never completely turned away from God, almost all of us have at times held back from full surrender.  We cannot believe that God could love us no matter what we have done. 
Even though I  experienced constant love from my parents, I was in my mid-thirties before I believed that God would love me without my having to earn it.  People who have had distant or mean parents find it even harder to trust God's gracious love.  Too many of us, like the prodigal son, feel that we are not loveable. 
Today's calendar tells me, "Let yourself be loved."  Praying over this parable again and again may help us to trust God's all forgiving love and let God take us in his arms.