Title [Rodem Tree-Lee Yun-jae] Falling Love
Contents
A parent's love is a love that bends the back. When I was young, there was a time when I thought that I would like to grow up quickly and become an adult. It was because they thought that they would be treated as adults when they became adults, and that they would be in a position to give orders when they became parents. Of course, it is the children, not the parents, who live on their backs at home. Every morning, the children greet each other by saying, “Father, Mother, I will go to school.” When he comes back in the evening, he bows his back saying, "I've been there." On holidays, children bow down to their parents.
God also bows to people and lives. It is man who has to bow down, but it is always God who lives by bending over. When Gomer left home, it was God who reformed him and brought him home. The word ‘open up’ (pata) means ‘to persuade, to ejaculate’. It was not that Gomer, who had left the house, apologized to God, but God to Gomer. When the prodigal son returned to his father, he begged for something to eat, but his father begged him not to leave the house. The content and depth of the ejaculation are different.
Rembrandt's painting 'The Return of the Prodigal Son' shows the father bent over in front of the prodigal son. It is always the father, not the son, who hastily bent down. The grace of the Bible is not to bow down on the side receiving the favor, but bowing down on the side that gives the favor. The world always asks the favored side to bow down. The loser bows to the winner, and the taller asks the lowly to bow.
However, the God of the Bible bows down first. So, ‘grace’ in the Bible originally means ‘to bow down’. Grace is the love that God bows toward the world, and mercy is the love that God bows toward sinners. Do you bow down and worship God today? Am I bowing down to serve the other person before asking them to bow? The problem with the church today is that there is no love that bends. Grace is love that bends the waist. Grace always comes from submission and happiness comes from surrender.