Sometimes, though we have wandered afar, we just need to come home to Jesus. Repentance is leaving the far country and its hollow pleasures that leave us empty and aching. Our heads may be hung low -we may feel unredeemable and irrevocably lost.

As we trudge up the strangely familiar path to the house we are stunned to find the Father is rushing at us not with a club but with a hug. In his shocking embrace we stammer out our plan of penance to make up for all our “mistakes” – but he only smiles down at us and calls for the fatted calf to be killed for the party welcoming us home.

It is when I realize I am actually loved and return his embrace – that repentance is truly worked in my heart. Repentance is returning to Him. And rather than groveling penance, true repentance fills us with joy in the Father.

Maybe you need that today. Like me.