Prodigals
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found. Luke 16:31
Most of us are familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son. The little snot asks for his father’s money, takes off and blows it on good times. Then he comes back. The father is thrilled. The prodigal is repentant and his brother is irate. When we read it in the Bible, depending on the day, we can see ourselves in the various characters. Sometimes one is the son, sometimes the father and far too often, all of us see ourselves as the brother.
The brother is judgmental. He’s caustic. He demands fairness. Yuk! And yet, it is so easy to relate to him. Most of us would prefer to be the father. List his personality traits, giving, forgiving, loving, kind. Sure, that’s who I want to be. We forget that after he was taken advantage of, after he suffered the lack of love and disrespect from his son, he stood in the doorway too many times for too many hours, waiting to see that well-loved, familiar face coming down the road, coming home. It is lovely to be the welcoming one. Wonderful to forgive and to embrace the miscreant turned penitent. Not so wonderful to spend sleepless nights wondering if you will ever see that face again. Will he return? Will you get to give him the embrace you so dearly want to give?
Then there is the prodigal. Why don’t we relate to him more often? Perhaps it is because his story is told as a one-time deal. He messed up in a huge way, realized it, came home, received forgiveness, the end. Most of us do not like to see ourselves in that role but most of us are there more often than we’d like to think. Just because the story is told as a big moment does not mean that it is only our big errors that break God’s heart. One sin is the same as the next to God.
The other day I heard an old song where the people speaking to God were referred to as prodigals. I started to think, what exactly does that mean? I remembered being taught what it meant when I was in high school and being surprised. I know it doesn’t mean sinful or even lost. So I looked it up for an exact definition. It means “wastefully or recklessly extravagant.” That doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize that this guy was wastefully and recklessly extravagant with someone else’s money. Then I put it together. Yes, we are all prodigals. Every single thing we have is a gift from God. Whether we acknowledge him or not, God is Father to us all. Every penny, every moment, every breath comes from God. When we waste those pennies, moments or breaths in sin we are just like the son, often referred to as the lost son, in the story.
I’ve been the brother, too many times and I’m sad to say I expect to be him again. I am the father at this moment, literally waiting for the return of a precious son. Worst of all I was, am and will be the son, wasting the gifts of my Father on things that don’t matter.
In the old song the prodigals are confessing sin in order to gain the ear of their Father. Unconfessed sin will eat at our peace like nothing else. It can cause a distance between us and the throne of God. Not because God imposes the distance but because we, like the lost son, walk away. We need to be quicker to head down the road toward home than the son we call prodigal and lost. Those are words we do not want to apply to ourselves.
Most of us are familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son. The little snot asks for his father’s money, takes off and blows it on good times. Then he comes back. The father is thrilled. The prodigal is repentant and his brother is irate. When we read it in the Bible, depending on the day, we can see ourselves in the various characters. Sometimes one is the son, sometimes the father and far too often, all of us see ourselves as the brother.
The brother is judgmental. He’s caustic. He demands fairness. Yuk! And yet, it is so easy to relate to him. Most of us would prefer to be the father. List his personality traits, giving, forgiving, loving, kind. Sure, that’s who I want to be. We forget that after he was taken advantage of, after he suffered the lack of love and disrespect from his son, he stood in the doorway too many times for too many hours, waiting to see that well-loved, familiar face coming down the road, coming home. It is lovely to be the welcoming one. Wonderful to forgive and to embrace the miscreant turned penitent. Not so wonderful to spend sleepless nights wondering if you will ever see that face again. Will he return? Will you get to give him the embrace you so dearly want to give?
Then there is the prodigal. Why don’t we relate to him more often? Perhaps it is because his story is told as a one-time deal. He messed up in a huge way, realized it, came home, received forgiveness, the end. Most of us do not like to see ourselves in that role but most of us are there more often than we’d like to think. Just because the story is told as a big moment does not mean that it is only our big errors that break God’s heart. One sin is the same as the next to God.
The other day I heard an old song where the people speaking to God were referred to as prodigals. I started to think, what exactly does that mean? I remembered being taught what it meant when I was in high school and being surprised. I know it doesn’t mean sinful or even lost. So I looked it up for an exact definition. It means “wastefully or recklessly extravagant.” That doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize that this guy was wastefully and recklessly extravagant with someone else’s money. Then I put it together. Yes, we are all prodigals. Every single thing we have is a gift from God. Whether we acknowledge him or not, God is Father to us all. Every penny, every moment, every breath comes from God. When we waste those pennies, moments or breaths in sin we are just like the son, often referred to as the lost son, in the story.
I’ve been the brother, too many times and I’m sad to say I expect to be him again. I am the father at this moment, literally waiting for the return of a precious son. Worst of all I was, am and will be the son, wasting the gifts of my Father on things that don’t matter.
In the old song the prodigals are confessing sin in order to gain the ear of their Father. Unconfessed sin will eat at our peace like nothing else. It can cause a distance between us and the throne of God. Not because God imposes the distance but because we, like the lost son, walk away. We need to be quicker to head down the road toward home than the son we call prodigal and lost. Those are words we do not want to apply to ourselves.
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