I could also phrase this question another way, “Is God disappointed in you?”

I think it is a question that’s swims around in many people’s souls, especially those who have had difficult or painful relationships with their parents.  There are few questions that I believe hold people at a distance from God as much as this one.

After all, why would you ever consider coming home to God, making yourself vulnerable to God, if all God was going to do is pile shame, rejection, and disapproval on you?  Wouldn’t that make things worse and infinitely more painful – to have our doubts and fears confirmed?  The fear of the possibility alone is enough to keep many people away – angry, defensive and distant towards God.

I think there are even plenty of Christians who could honestly say, “I know God loves me, but I wish I could feel that God is proud of me.”

The good news is that the Bible, and especially Jesus, has a wonderful answer to this question.

One day, Jesus was telling people stories to help them understand what God is like (Luke 15).  One of the stories he told was the story of a son who demanded his inheritance before his father died so that he could enjoy it while he was still young.  Though I’m sure the demand hurt his father terribly, his father gave him the money and he went off to a far away place and “squandered his wealth in wild living.”

I’m sure those weren’t the words the son would have used to describe what he was setting off to do.  He might have said he was, “setting out to live his life,” he was “seizing the day,” he was “getting some space from his dad so he could live life free of his judgment and disapproval.”  It didn’t matter a whole lot though, because the end result was the same.  The money was soon gone and he had nothing and no one.

It wasn’t until he was facing starvation that he considered going home to his father, not as his son though – that was over, that ship had sailed, he’d hurt his father too badly and done and seen too much for things to ever be like that again.  Hat in hand he would beg to be a servant in his household and be content with that.  The desperation of hunger drove him past his fear of his father’s rejection, disapproval and shame and all along the way home he rehearsed his speech, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.”

But the son didn’t understand his father very well.  I’m sure the father hated all the things his son did that hurt his boy, darkened his soul, or hurt someone else, but he loved his son and prayed that he’d come home.

When the son was still a long way off, the father saw him coming, he had been looking for his son – hoping, praying.  The father rushed out to meet his son, threw his arms around him, and cried and kissed him and yelled so much the son couldn’t finish his speech. The father yelled for his servants to bring clean clothes and a family ring and prepare a feast – his son, that he loved so much, had come home!

There were no games, no shaming, or disapproval, just love and joy.  The father loved the son and was so happy to have him home in his arms again.  He didn’t even say in a heavy tone, “Okay, I forgive you son, come in the back door and get cleaned up.”  No!  His father shouted for joy and declared to everyone, “This is my son!  He has come home!”  He was proud.

What is Jesus saying to that question that finds a place in so many of us, “Is God proud of me?  Is God disappointed in me?”  – God Loves you and is proud of you because you are his child.

“Am I enough? Do I do enough for God to be proud of me?” – God loves you and is proud of you because you are his child.  Like the father in this story, God loves you and there is nothing you could do to make God love you more or less.

Or, as the Apostle Paul puts it, “love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) and later, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:8) – come home.

God is proud of you because of who and whose you are and waits to rush out to meet you whenever you decide to come home.