The Prodigal

Do you remember when the wonderful flip phones came out? You know? the ones that could finally take pictures and record videos? Well, my family loves all the latest gadgets and when one person gets “the latest”, they all want it. So once again, true to form, my husband just had to have the new Motorola flip phone, never mind that he never, and I mean never carried his personal phone; only his work phone. So needless to say, when he brought this new toy home, my son insisted on having this phone. He (and I ~smiles) argued our point very well…..”But Dad (Honey-with “that” look), you never carry your personal phone, why not let me have it.” So after much convincing, my husband let my son have the phone. Well the very next week my son had a trip to Florida planned. Florida: water: new phone? Need I say more? Well after several days of not hearing from my son, one of the other mom’s whose son was on this trip called to ask me if I had heard about my son’s phone, and of course I had not, so she informed me that he had dropped it in the lake. After the shock wore off, my husband and I decided not to tell him we knew, but to wait and see if he would tell us. He even called from someone else’s phone, but never told us about the phone. I remember thinking to myself, Lord, if he would just tell us about the phone we could fix this problem. And I remember feeling the Lord reply, “My daughter, isn’t that how you do me? Aren’t you always trying to fix things that should be handled by me?” “Whoa, Okay God, I understand.”

Isn’t it sad that when we make a mess of things, we always run from the only source that can help us fix it? Isn’t it funny that we allow shame and condemnation to set in and keep us from forgiveness, grace and mercy? It reminds me of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)……..after the son had demanded his inheritance and left home to squander it all away and he was at the bottom of the pit eating with the pigs, he wanted to come home…..but the enemy tried to lie to him and tell him, “You can’t go back there, he doesn’t want you, you’ve messed up too bad, look at you~etc” Isn’t that the same thing the enemy does to us? Therefore, some of us keep running and never look back. But what did that father do? He saw his son from a distance, and immediately demanded the staff to prepare for a celebration. He ran to meet his son with open arms…..you see he just wanted his son home, safe, whole and healed. He didn’t want to condemn or punish him, he was just happy he was back where he belonged.

That is exactly the kind of Father God we serve, His desire is not condemn and punish us for the rest of our lives. His desire is that we be whole, restored, transformed and be in relationship with Him. (even when we smell like the pigs~wink)