What did the father tell his friends?
They must’ve asked, wondered, whether through curiosity or concern.
"Hey, haven't seen that younger boy of yours around..."
"What's up with your boy...is everything ok?"
Where has your son been keeping himself, haven't seen him?"
"Hey, haven't seen that younger boy of yours around..."
"What's up with your boy...is everything ok?"
Where has your son been keeping himself, haven't seen him?"
What did the father say?
The text doesn’t tell us (Luke 15:11-32).
Here is my
speculation.
1.
I love my son, and his departure has broken my
heart.
2.
Our home and heart are open and ready to welcome
him back,
should he choose to return.
3.
Yahweh models my role in this, and I want to
live it out. His non-negotiables
help inform what mine are. His sacrificial, merciful, unending love
exemplifies my pursuit of restoration and steers my own heart in this.
4.
Can you join with me in prayer that God would
care for, watch over, direct, and restore my son?
5.
Can you join with me in prayer that God would
care for, watch over, protect and guard my heart in this, as well?
If these additional
questions are asked, he may have replied:
1.
Is he
lost forever? An infidel (unbeliever)? I don’t know and God hasn’t given me
that burden to carry. Mine is simply to love, lead, be faithful and winsome in
living out God’s love. Can you help me live out 1 Corinthians 13 that says love
“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…”?
2.
Do we
cast him out and write him off? Nope, that’s God’s job. And even God is
portrayed as the Good Shepherd who goes out after the ONE sheep that is lost,
leaving the 99 to rescue the one that has strayed. God does sometimes (rightfully so) cut one
off, but this judgment is in his time, his wisdom, and he is ever patient and
persistent in his pursuit of the lost. I
will mirror this, and leave ultimate judgment to God.
3.
Aren’t
you angry, isn’t it unfair, shouldn’t you draw the line and shout loudly “You
are outta here until you see what is right, dude!”? Mercy triumphs over judgment. Both have
their place, but micromanaging God’s judgment by taking in my hand when & how he intends his own to work…that is
ineffective, short-sighted, pridefully self-reliant, and just ludicrous!
4.
Isn’t
there a call for you to do ‘tough love’? Holding to the line on God’s
non-negotiables is the benchmark for this tough love, and we won’t back down.
Holding to our own lines of what’s ‘fair’, ‘reasonable’, maintains our own
rights, defensive, or what insures our comfort in loving…well, that’s not
tough love, that’s just man’s definition of love. (Look at the cross for how
much Christ insisted on what’s reasonable, sensible, or fair.)
5.
How can I
help? Thank you so much for asking!! Pray (see #4 & #5 above). Also help
me focus on the truths that keep me grounded:
- This is not the end of the story.
- God is at work and that means in ALL of us (maybe in me, perhaps others in my family who have sin/attitudes/self-righteousness that needs to be recognized? (hmm…isn’t there another son in this story?)
- My Son & this situation are not the most important thing in life – God’s glory is!
- And help me….please help me not to wallow in the muckiness of now so that I lose sight of the glory of the big picture and the BIG God who is in complete control!
- My response to my prodigal son….who knows but that God may want my example to stand as a model for others, for future generations?!….not just for how fathers are to respond to wayward sons, but to mirror the incomparable, unstoppable, unimaginable wonder of the love of Father God! (Not sure how that would work,or why my little story would matter to anyone or how it could be preserved for centuries to come, but hey…God can do anything. He could find a way. He is supernatural. )
Hmmm….what
might the mother of the prodigal son
have told her friends around the water well the morning after her son left?
Hi Elaine! Somehow I lost the link to your blog and just found it this morning--God's timing! We have an almost unbearable situation with one of our children and I appreciate so much your words of encouragement this morning--esp. that the story isn't over.
ReplyDeleteHi Connie. Thank you for your encouragement. Indeed, the truth that God's story is ongoing is one I preach to myself often. It is so easy to wallow in the hard circumstances of the present, and I pray often that God would help me look upward and foreword in hope.
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