Secondly in these verses we see the deal making we often engage in when we consider coming back to God, to our Father. We too can continue in the false thinking of the world that has damaged us. Make me like one of Your hired men! As if that was an option to an all-loving God!
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15: 20
And so beloved, there stands our Father too a long way off. The distance is not because He had moved but because we did. We went a long way off from Him but He still stood there, where we left Him. He still stood there waiting for us with open arms, filled with compassion. Waiting and hoping for the day we would return to Him so He could rejoice as the father in the parable now did:
But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. Luke 15: 22-24
And so the lost son was now found. A word picture for salvation, we return home to our Father who celebrates our repentance. We too may have traveled a great distance across the barren desert of the world to come to our senses in time and ask our heavenly Father to take us back. We too may have been worried about how we would be received after being so disobedient, but as the key verse says, there is rejoicing in heaven when just one soul comes home!
If this finds you today in the desert, searching for the hope that someone will give you something, anything please remember that your Father is still waiting for you to simply turn around and come back home. If the promises the world has made you have all come up empty, remember that your Father's arms are open and that all of His promises are yes and amen. Come back to the Father today. Like this lost son, you too can be found. Amen.
Reverend Anthony Wade February 19, 2009
But what of the other son? Often we stop here, with the picture of salvation having been painted and the son who was dead now alive again. With a joyous celebration about to begin we often leave the parable here but there was another son and Jesus was not done with the teaching just yet. The next devotional will examine the common pitfalls for the believer, taught by Jesus through the life of the older son. The son, who was found, was truly the son who was lost.
