That's My Boy

A journey through the I AM statements:

So I don't know if you guys have ever heard the song "Cats in the Cradle," but it's honestly the saddest song I have ever heard. What always gets me about it, though, isn't exactly the story of it. There's a line at the end of it where the singer calls his son "my boy," and it's then that the eyes get watery and the chills migrate to everywhere on my body. Something about that phrase just melts my heart. Especially when it's used by my dad in a letter he hid under my pillow in my dorm. But when a father calls his son "my boy," I can't help but think that that is one of the most intimate, albeit short, expressions of fatherly love that there is.

Fatherly love had a huge impact on my life this summer, and it still does today. In week 6, Josiah gave a message about the prodigal son, and that story became the body of my own story. When I was working through my testimony, I made this page in my journal that still fills my heart to look at. Essentially it's the words "THAT'S MY BOY" scrawled across a page and all around those three big words are written this:

"That's my son, whom I love and who has returned home. He was lost and is found; he was dead and is alive. I don't care about your sins, I don't care about your rationalizations or excuses, all that matters to me is that you're home safe and sound. You are forgiven, and your guilt is forgotten. I don't care what you've done; come and dwell in my house and live the life that I have prepared for you. You are my son, my boy; I made you and I bought you with my own disgrace and the blood of my son so that you could return home to me safely and live in my arms. Your sins are paid for; from the grave I have risen victoriously for you. I am patient, I am kind, I always protect, I always persevere, I never fail. I am love. Through my grace you are saved; the disgrace of the cross and the blood of my son are your forgiveness, your salvation, your redemption. You're my son. My boy. And I love you."

God used my story to show me just how much He loved me, and to show me that He accepted me and welcomed me as His son. Hold in your head the image of the father tearfully embracing his son, weeping because he has returned and pulling him closer, holding him tighter at every opportunity. The father whispers through the tears, "My boy's come home; I love you." Now imagine that that's you. You're the child. You are His beloved, and He will never, ever let you go.