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A Planting of Faith Seeds for the Glory of the LORD
The Prodigal God?
One of the most powerful and come-to-life-piercing stories Jesus told was the parable of the Prodigal Son. You know it! It’s the story of the son who gathered up his stuff asked for his inheritance then went out to conquer the world. Only in the end to be conquered by the very world he thought he had by the tail. Upon returning to his home the 4 words, “Father, I have sinned,” have echoed across the eons of time and will probably do so for years and years to come from the lips and hearts of prodigals from all walks of life.
While the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable was a fictional person those of us who have been the prodigal son and more importantly for those of us who are currently prodigal sons and daughters the story and the outcome is anything but fictional. Let’s take a break for a minute and take a look at what it really means to be prodigal we can do that not just by using a dictionary but also by using a thesaurus. Prodigal: wasteful, reckless, dissolute, profligate, uncontrolled.
I saved the best for last because the last exchangeable word for prodigal doesn’t describe the son in Jesus’ parable or our story but instead describes the Father! Prodigal: EXTRAVAGANT! Nowhere in the scriptures is God’s extravagance for powerfully and realistically expressed than when the Father put a robe and sandals on his prodigal son, a ring on his finger, and threw a huge party. That same “Prodigal God” in Jesus’ parable is the SAME GOD who with arms opened wide run to greet us and accept us! (You KNOW I am telling the TRUTH!)
The apostle Paul who once was a prodigal himself writes of his experience with God’s extravagance. “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4, CEV)
The one thing that impresses me the most about Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son is the Father in the story DOES NOT CONDEMN his son nor does he say, “I told you so.” I suspect in many of our own lives there are prodigals who are still wandering or have just broken over the horizon and are running toward us shouldn’t we then show them the same extravagance God has shown us?
There is no better feeling in the entire world than the feeling of being accepted by God and our loved ones in spite of our waywardness.
As you are comforted by God – go and be a comforting presence in your world. It’s the God/Jesus/Holy Spirit thing to do!
Believe it! Experience it!
Grace and PEACE!
Gary
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“Turn to the LORD! He can still be found. Call out to God! He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6, CEV)
“Turn to the LORD! He can still be found. Call out to God! He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6, CEV)
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Scripture marked CEV are taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
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