If you have never read the story, The Prodigal Son, go get a Bible and read it. First, it’s a great story. Secondly, you need to have read it to understand this blog entry.
It seems to me there are three sons in this story, not just two. I will reveal the identity of the third son at the end of the blog.
Most of the story concerns the younger, irresponsible, worldly son who is disrespectful towards his father. He demands his inheritance and leaves home to squander his father’s hard earned inheritance on useless things and activities.
Soon, this young man has spent all his inheritance; has no back up plan and winds up working on a pig farm and eating pig food!
Most of us would agree that the prima dona got what he deserves! Let him live the rest of his life in the pig sty!
Many of us are like the younger son. We are spontaneous and adventurous. We tend to be risk takers and don’t fit societies mold very well, in fact, we break molds. And many of us end up like this son, or even worse. Definitely those of us that fit this description qualify for the screw-up category.
The older son is the responsible one. He does everything right. He is the model citizen. He plays by the rules of the game. He has money in the bank, drives a nice car, and has saved for retirement.
At the end of the story though, the hard heart of this son is exposed. He has worked for his father all these years, but does not really know his father, and he despises his younger brother. I don’t know which is worse, a son who blows his inheritance on selfish living, or the son who uses his father for gain and cares nothing about relationship.
Some of us are like the older son. We have our agenda and our goals and we will play the game hard and we will win and have our stuff—but will have missed what matters most—relationship. He qualifies for the screw-up category.
The one son who is not directly in the story is the son who is the story-teller. He is The Son—of The Father. He understands and loves his Father and his Father understands and loves him. He is the Son who invites us into his relationship with his Father.
Yep—he invites us screw-ups who have no clue how to do relationships, and immediately we are accepted by his Father, today, just as we are. He disarms our defenses and exposes our fears.
Then he soothes our heart with the aloe of his unconditional love. Unconditional love is not found in our human world. All we have ever known and will know is conditional love! That is how the younger son and the older son loved their father, conditionally.
But the father in the story represents the Father of Jesus! His love is unconditional and will forever seek us out. Will forever call our hearts. Will forever reach out to us until that day when we finally get it—embrace it—and live in the reality of such eternal, relentless love.
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