Book Quotes: Amazing Grace

From Eyes Wide Open by Jud Wilhite (page 14; he's talking about the story of the prodigal son and has gotten to the point where the son decides to come home and beg his father for a spot as a servant):

You'd think the father might send him to the quarry to hammer stones for the next decade. Make him earn his keep by sweeping out the chicken coop for five straight years. Yeah, that'll show this little brat. That'll teach him. In fact, there is a similar story in Buddhist literature, and in it the father does make the son spend his life working off all the wrong he has done.

This is where the picture of God in the Bible is so radically different. There is just amazing love and forgiveness. The father runs to greet his son. He's not holding back, trying to settle the score. No calculating. No payback. He doesn't talk about the sins of the past.