Open Door Policy – Grace Instead of Condemnation

Open Door Policy – Grace Instead of Condemnation is the fourth message in our Lenten series, Open Door Policies.  These are God’s surprising strategies for getting sinners back home.

Rock Bottom

Let me take you to the final illustration of the message.  This time the story is told through the eyes of the prodigal son on his way home.  The son had hit rock bottom after squandering his savings on wild living.  He decided he would try and go home.  He managed to get a train ticket back to his hometown.  He wrote and told his parents that he was wrong to have treated them as he did and that he understood if they didn’t want him to come home.  The train tracks came into town right behind his family’s home.  In the letter he asked them to hang a white towel on the clothes line if it was alright to come home, and that if he didn’t see the white towel he understood that he was not welcome.  The letter was sent and the next week he was riding the train heading home.  As he got closer he became nervous, his gut was in knots.  He couldn’t bear to look.

One White Towel

“Sir, around this next corner, this next bend, there is going to be a farm house off the left. A white house. An old red barn behind it. A dilapidated fence. There will be a clothesline in the back yard. Would you do me a favor and look and see if there is a white towel hanging on the clothesline? I know it sounds peculiar, but I can’t bear to look.” Well, the train came closer and closer to the bend and started to go around the bend, and the young man’s heart was racing as fast as it could. The man said, “Look, look, look. Open your eyes.” The whole clothesline was covered with white towels. The oak trees were covered with white sheets. The barn roof was covered with sheets. The old dilapidated fence was covered with white sheets. There were sheets everywhere. The father and mother so deeply wanted their son to come back home.

Want to hear more?  Watch this week’s message from our series, Open Door Policy – Grace Instead of Condemnation.