Picture a little child, with sticky fingers, crawling into the lap of her Father, embraced without care for the mess she presents, and knowing children, likely smears on him. This to a little one, is the safest place on earth. Within the warmth and strength of her Daddy’s embrace, she has nothing to fear. She is accepted without concern about her appearance, her messes, her past wrongs, or rejection, if her Daddy is reaching for her with a smile and a kiss she has nothing in the world to think of except maybe that he might give her a tickling. To a little one, Daddy is the strongest person in the world, he can take the biggest bad guy no problem. If he puts her on his shoulders, she knows that he won’t drop her even if she tugs his hair right out. This is the confidence of a child with her Daddy. If her Daddy hears her cry in fear or pain he does not linger, but runs to her, sweeps her up in the air and fixes everything in a blink of an eye. Even to the poorest of children, their Daddy is king, and they the princes and princesses of the kingdom. No loved little child should have fears that her Daddy won’t listen to her concerns, have time to enjoy a laugh together, know her name or find her lacking. A little one should also know that Daddy has limits set for them as well, and discipline does come, but in fairness and forgiveness is given wholeheartedly. This is our Father.

Our focus on the story of the prodigal son all too often falls upon the sins of the sons, and we don’t cast a glance at the Father. This story reveals the Father heart of God like none other. The son was still a long way off when his Father spotted him. This tells us that the Father was looking for him, watching for his return, knowing that his son would eventually come to him. It doesn’t say how many evenings he looked out on the horizon longing for the boy, but it does say he was watching. The Father doesn’t wait for the boy to make it home, he picks up his robes and runs to the boy. This image is unheard of to the Easterner, where the patriarch is the example of propriety and would never be seen running to anyone! But this Father cares nothing for his image to his servants and town folk, off he goes in a run to meet his lost boy. He has compassion for him. He feels his boy’s pain, embarrassment and loss, and he fills in that ache as soon as he can. Lifting the boy into his arms with an embrace and a kiss that tell the whole world that this boy will never be less than his beloved. This is our Dad.

For the Muslim, God is not a Father. The assumption of the Christian to call upon God as a Father seems like a huge imposition to the Muslim mind. God is held too far from the Muslim, in too high reverence to dare to approach Him as a child does her daddy. While Christians also should set a great deal of respect on our Lord, we should also come to Him with the confidence of this little one, indeed we are His little ones. For a Muslim to imagine that God of the universe also wants to kiss our cheeks is quite impossible. Such is the gap between the Muslim and God. Such is our privilege as Christians to know that warm comfort. Our Father longs to see all of His children coming home. He is awaiting each of them, looking into the horizon for signs of their coming so that He might run to them, embrace them and kiss them. So also should our longing be to see our brothers coming home to Him. The Muslim has no idea that His Father is looking out in the distance for him, but He is. Pray for us to be able to share that sight with the Muslim world, the sight of the Father who will sweep His little one into His arms with a shout of delight. And pray that they will come to Him with confidence of a child knowing He delights in them.