Prodigal Son, now if i would have just posted that you would have thought, yeah yeah, i know that one, next. Which may be true, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the biblical stories we know well. I have to admit when i was doing my devotion time today and i got to Luke 15:11, I was like yeah i know this one moving on, but i read it, stopped prayed and read it again. This parable always astounds me, because the father does exactly the opposite of what we would do.
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. (Lk 15:11-14, NIV)
The son demands his inheritance and bails, ready to move on to bigger and better things. Sees the world, has adventures, and sews his wild oats; then finds himself alone, empty, and broke. He finds a job (vs.15) working for a guy feeding pigs, and finds himself longing to eat the slop the pigs are getting. He comes to his senses and decides to go back home. Now we know what happens here, Dad sees him welcomes him back and he is in good standings like he was before, the problem was other brother is ticked because he stayed, he worked, he was there the whole time, and know here is brother that bailed getting treated so good. stop.
Here is the thing, reality is if you or I were dad we would more than likely practice what we call "tough love" right here, son shows up we may feed him, but that would be it, we would be like you blew your chance, now go get a job somewhere else, i'm not gonna keep on being taken advantage of. You know it's true. But this parable isn't talking about my love, your love, or the worlds love. It's talking about God's love, the love that is unconditional, the love that seeks you out and tells you it's time to come home, the love that welcomes you back no matter how long you have been gone, the love that doesn't remember the wrongs, the love that forgives,the love that never ever leaves us, and the love that isn't "tough love" its "grace and mercy love".
God loves you period. If you have traveled away from Him, He is waiting on you to come home. Why? because He loves you.
I love you too, Chris
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