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Luke 15:20-24 – We are continuing with this story of the prodigal son. How far away from home was this young man? We don’t know for sure, we are told that he went to a far country.
Do you suppose that his steps got a bit slower as he got nearer home? We don’t know.
Often times when we make the decision to arise and go God will give us the grace we need to go on.
The father was at home waiting, every day, for likely a long time. The father was waiting even on the day when the son came home. He wasn’t so shocked when he saw his son coming, he was expecting him!
He ran to him.
We see here tremendous love. This thing of running to meet his son was completely out of the ordinary for the Jewish culture. He could have disowned his son forever. What his son had done made him worthy of disownment. We are in the same condition as the son.
One of Jesus main reasons for sharing this story is to give us a picture of how the fathers heart is towards us. Even with the second son his heart of love and care never changed.
The father is good. That is his heart. God will not despise and refuse the broken and contrite heart. God is just waiting for that heart to come to him. He’s waiting to forgive and accept him.
Isaiah 57:15 – We can never come to the standard of our father in heaven. But there is a message for fathers in the story of the prodigal son. We aren’t perfect and we often make mistakes, we have limited wisdom, and sometimes our love isn’t pure.
This father in the story never gave up. And when his son returned he forgave. He could have had quite a list of restrictions or changes that needed to occur, when his son came home…
Forgiveness was complete and there was completely restoration. The son didn’t know exactly how his father would respond, but he knew his father well enough to know that he loved him and that he would love, receive, and deal fairly with him.
