Returning Prodigal

As the diligent readers of this blog are aware, my primary focus on this blog is for the benefit of my relatives and friends, and the situations that arise in our lives, therefore much of what is written may be somewhat obscure for those reading who do not have a knowledge of the background of what is happening in the family.  This being the case, and since the audience of this blog is growing larger and reaching a greater demographic than what I had expected, I will endeavour to give a little more background information in the hopes that the posts will be viewed in context. 

For privacy I have decided to change personally identifiable information relating to the person(s) involved in this experience. 

Often our lives are touched by experiences that we would rather not have experienced, and sometimes our lives are touched by an evil that makes us quiver and shake, and would that we might not drink of the bitter cup. 

What do you do when a loved one, whom you loved with a pure love, starts to walk down that evil road?  What do you do when that loved one indulges in wickedness so vile that you vomit at the thought?  What do you do when that loved one commits heinous acts of rape for pleasure, and continually brags about stealing the virtue of one of God's innocent children?  How does a person deal with this? 

Often I post for the victims, because our Heavenly Father and His Son are Gods of the innocent; they are Gods of the oppressed, of the victims, and the victims will always come first with Father.  But this time, I want to share an experience I had concerning a relative of mine.  This is not an easy topic to write about, and there may be serious triggers here, so please use caution if you decide to read further. 

A relative, whom I care about so deeply, who was my very best friend in the whole wide world, had gone astray.  It began with pride, with little things: lying, deceiving, ridiculing, insulting, cheating, etc.  Then things began to digress to immorality.  Then once the pleasure of immorality sank in it began to get much worse.  My best friend began to make and execute plans to lure people into sexual immorality.  Until finally one day, this relative crossed a huge line and raped someone.  He told me that he was special and that the child should be grateful that she was raped by him, that it was a great honour for her to be raped by him. 

I felt so sick.  I started vomiting and couldn't stop for such a long time.  How could this happen?  How could my best friend be so evil? 

It didn't stop there, but I do not feel the need to go into more detail.  Suffice it to say that I was outraged, and could have nothing but compassion on the victim.  But what would happen to my relative?  He did things for which, according to scripture, he would spend an eternity in hell, and because we were the best of friends at one time, I was quite concerned that he would be cast off forever, never to return, never to progress, damned throughout all eternity.  And why shouldn't he be, after what he had done, after what he was doing?  Yet, a part of me thought of the Saviour.  I know that the victim will be saved, but what of the sinner?  What of the person who commits that terrible of crime against another human being? 

The thought of my love ones being lost to death and hell terrifies me.  I tried to help, counselling, admonishing, teaching, preaching, exhorting, being his friend, and giving all that I had, but nothing seemed to work.  I went to the Lord for help. 

A vision opened up in the which I saw the mercy of the Lord.  I do not want to go into detail in this post of what hell is like, or what a person who is consigned to that awful state must do to extricate himself.  But instead I would like to share that when a person who is in hell repents and becomes a good person, having removed all evil desires from their hearts, and when the time arrives that they are freed from the grips of hell, then they will be once again received by their loved ones. 

When the time came, myself and several others were there waiting when my relative came out of the darkness and ran toward us.  His face was shining, and his soul free from the evil that had once held him bound; I had my best friend back.  It was a most blissful reunion. 

We escourted him to the throne of God, where angels stood on either side of us, and Heavenly Father ran down from the throne, threw his arms around His returning child, and wept for joy. 

Heavenly Mother stood with her hand over her mouth, tears streaming over her cheeks, flowing from those eyes of perfect love, as she watched this touching reunion. 

The Son of God, who stood on the right hand of the throne, also witnessed the scene with tears running down his face. 

It was such a touching reunion.  Everyone could feel the absolute love emanating from the Father. 

The returning prodigal didn't feel worthy, and was so very concerned about not being worthy, but at this Heavenly Father just emanated more love for his returning child. 

Our Heavenly Father never gives up on His children, even when they go to hell.  He never stops His work.  He will never give up on anyone.  It is the will of God to seek that which is lost. 

I told the vision to my relative, who does seem to want to repent, but didn't think there was any hope or reason to repent, but this vision gave tremendous hope.  I am forever grateful for the mercy and love of God. 

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