I'm Outta Here!

There once was a man who had two sons.  The younger said to his father, “Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.”  So the father divided the property between them.  It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country.  There, undisciplined and dissipated, he squandered everything he had…

Luke 15:11-13

This third parable of Jesus strikes a chord across all social lines, in every society on this planet.  Your child – this precious human being that you brought into the world, now wants no part of yours.  Selfish and headstrong, [s]he asks for his/her inheritance while the father is still alive, then takes off – putting as much distance as possible between their ambition and the staid life on the homestead.  Arriving in… New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, London, Christchurch, Lima, Mexico City, or wherever their flight may take them, they grab the brass ring with both hands, spending money like water and living the high life.  Because his money is not limitless, the bottom eventually drops out, and the young man is forced to support himself any way he can.

Most sermons I have heard, or commentaries I have read on this story place their emphasis on the prodigal son.  For me, this story was told, not to highlight Junior, but to draw attention to the love of the Father.  Not one of my three girls has ever run away, but there has been plenty of asking for money, and times of ignoring parental advice to their detriment.  When they get in trouble, does that change my feeling for them?  Never!  I love them straight through the good and the bad.  God calls that kind of love “unconditional” and there is no other love quite like it.

The verbal picture of the Father, coming every day to the front porch to look down the long road, hoping and praying for some sign of his child would be a bit different now—praying and hoping for a phone call, a text message, an e-mail.  The story is the same, however – the longing of a parent to know that their child is safe and secure, the flowing tears and constant prayer.  This story, like no other, paints in vivid colors the picture of the Father’s love for each of us.  He created us, sustains us, loves us unconditionally, and longs for the day when we “come home.”

…this is a wonderful time, and we have to celebrate!

This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive!

He was lost, and now he’s found.

Luke 15:32 [The Message]