Human Versus Infinite Love by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1916

Human Versus Infinite Love

By F. M. W.

We may appreciate more fully the great love of God in giving his Son to die for a race of rebels, when we contrast that love with the affection shown by earthly parents for their children. We were impressed with this recently in reading an incident which occurred in one of our Western cities. A young man, the idol of his home, and the object of deep solicitude on the part of his parents, who had spent much money in his education, fell into evil ways. He degenerated into a professional bogus-check man and hotel thief. His father, a respectable citizen, felt the disgrace very keenly, and in a fit of deep humiliation, almost despair, he wrote his son, “You are a curse to my family. Why don’t you take a gun and blow your brains out?”

We can sympathize with the poor distracted father, but by contrast we see the shallowness of human affection as compared with the infinite love, patience, and long-suffering of the heavenly Father. How many times we disgrace the family name! How many times we grieve the great heart of love! But that love never changes in its attitude toward us. It still longs for our salvation, and when we return, although clothed in filthy rags and having spent our inheritance in riotous living, the Father meets us a long way off, and bids us welcome. He gathers the other members of his family to rejoice with him over our return, clothes us with the white robes of royal raiment, and gives us an honored seat at the family feast. This great love of God for fallen man is the high example he places before us of the love we should bear our fellows.

F. M. W.