"And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living." v12-13
Luke 15:11-24. NKJV
This was a situation that is relevant to many families today; a young son or daughter, thinking they know best, gather up their things and leave home, looking for stardom or any other kind of wild living and then end up with problems and some in peril.
When we are young, we do tend to think that we know it all and despite much advise and pleading from parents, go off and do our own thing.
It was no different for this younger son. He asked for his share of his inheritance. At this time, a father could release the inheritance before or after his death, mostly it was after. However, this would be at his discretion. The son was successful in having his wishes granted and he set off on his adventure. After living the high and wild life for a while, his fortune ran out and he was broke. Adding to this, there was a famine and he made the mistake of joining himself to a citizen of that country in order to gain a wage and some food. I say mistake, because with his father, he was in a covenant relationship. With this relationship there was no covenant, as he quickly found out.
He was assigned to feeding pigs with pods. These were seeds from a carob tree, which was evergreen. The fruit - the pod, was like a bean which was used as fodder to feed the animals, which here, was a total insult because he had to feed these pods to pigs, which to a Jew was unclean. He was in such a state that he would gladly have eaten them himself, such was his hunger. However, the hunger he felt in his heart, was for his father, who he had wronged and left. He would have been crestfallen.
He eventually, came to his senses and returned to his father, rehearsing what he would say on his return. But note what happened. His father had been looking and waiting for him possibly ever since he had left and when he saw him in the distance, he ran to his son and hugged and kissed him, restoring him back into the family.
And this is how it is when we return to our Father. We may have left Him out of our thinking for a while, or even walked away, but He is always watching and waiting for us to come back. But notice some thing, we have to go to Him, He doesn't come to us, although He may give a few nudges. As we return to Him in repentance, He throws His arms around us, kisses us and gives us His all. Why does He do that? Because He loves us and can't get enough of us. He adores us. You may know what this is like if you have had a child return home to you. It is a time to rejoice and this is what our Father does.
The bottom line though, is stop thinking that you know best, because you don't. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, 'Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.'
Do you need to return to Him and say that you're sorry?
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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