The God Who Loves Us Through Our Regrets
( by ELIZABETH LAING THOMPSON )

“For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
Luke 15:24a (NIV)

“If only I hadn’t made that dumb decision,” I lamented to my friend. “If I had known then what I know now, I would have made a different choice.”

Ever been there? Wishing you could turn back the clock to unmake a decision? To unquit a job, undate a guy or unspeak rash words?

We all have decisions we regret, and we regret them for different reasons.

Maybe we lacked information, so we made the best choice we could with the knowledge we had at the time, but things still went sideways.

Maybe we lacked maturity — our older, wiser selves would make a better choice today, but our younger, less-experienced selves were in charge back then.

Maybe we lacked conviction, so we made a sinful choice that hurt our heart or hurt other people.

That last kind of regret is the hardest to move past, isn’t it? Regrets over sinful decisions may haunt us not only because they carry painful consequences but also because they make us spiritually insecure. We worry that even when God forgives us, He stays low-key angry. We picture Him wagging a condemning finger from His heavenly throne: Don’t come whining to me. You got yourself into this mess — now get yourself out of it.

But that’s not the heart of our gracious Father. In His parable of the prodigal son, Jesus illustrates God’s heart toward us. The parable describes a son who squandered his inheritance in “wild living” (Luke 15:13, NIV) and ended up starving and alone — literally wallowing in a pigpen.

When the humiliated son finally came to his senses and limped home, we might expect his father to have greeted him with anger or a smug “I told you so.” But Jesus depicts the father like this:

“ … While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him … Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’” (Luke 15:20-24a, NIV).

The father wasn’t just happy about his son’s return. He was leap-off-the-porch-and-sprint-down-the-driveway-to-hug-his-son-before-he-could-even-finish-apologizing excited. He threw a party and helped his son begin rebuilding his life.

As we grapple with our own regrets, what comfort we find in Jesus’ story. When we need a fresh start, God supports us. When we confess we’ve made a mess, He celebrates our repentance. When we’ve wandered away, we can come to our senses and find our heavenly Father waiting with open arms, ready to welcome us home.

Father, thank You for loving me through my mistakes. Thank You that I can start over, knowing I am forgiven and loved. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.