Luke 15:11-16
And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

It’s not like the son went out on some noble endeavor. He wasted what his father gave him. He spent it frivolously. And he used it all without any foresight about what would happen when the money ran out. Isn’t that often the way of sin? It takes and takes from us, and we end up with nothing to show for it at all when it’s all said and done. It leaves us lost, broken, and wanting, and we’re left in the miry consequences trying to figure out what we can do.

But just as his sin was his own choice, his repentance had to be, also. It took that rock-bottom experience to make him understand what he had walked away from in leaving his father’s house. It took spending some time being hungry in that pigpen to understand where his choices had led him and that he could now make a different choice and change the course of his life. It took losing everything to make him see what he really needed.

Sin is messy. It messes us up. It creates messes in our lives. But there is somewhere we can go to be washed clean from all that grime that sticks and stains. There is a cleansing fountain that can make us white as snow. When we see our sin for what it is and see ourselves for who we really are, we can more clearly see God for who He is and what He wants to do in our lives. Our sin is a choice, but so is repentance. So is realizing we messed up and heading back to the heart of mercy and grace that can renew, restore, and rebuild all that sin took from us.