Luke 15:20

New International Version (NIV)

So he got up and went to his father.

For Meditation

The agony of a child gone wayward; it’s like a knife thrust through the heart. Questions linger. They probe the mind for answers that elude reason. Guilt checks in with its baggage for an unspecified stay, and the heart becomes heavy. She is cruel, accusing, and loud. Ask Jacob when Simeon and Levi killed the unsuspecting Shechemites (Gen. 34:30). Check with Eli (1 Sam. 2: 12-16), and David (2 Sam. 13:21, 36; 14:1; 15:13; 18:5; 1 Kings 1:5-10), and hear their stories.

Maybe you can now feel the heart of God when Adam told Him, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Gen. 3:12). Maybe you can sense it in these words, “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations” (Is. 65:2). You may be able to hear it from the younger son’s demand to his father, “Give me my share of the estate” (Lk. 15:12), and he “set off into a distant country and squandered his wealth in wild living” (13). Then comes the waiting, praying and hoping!

You may also be wetting your pillows all night long, searching your heart for where you went wrong. You may be kicking yourself for not taking ‘that decision’ earlier; perhaps, it could have prevented all this. The fact of the matter is that you may never find a satisfactory answer in probing your thoughts. It will only lead you to give up on your prayers because it has been way too long, and nothing appears on the horizon. God is too far to even notice or hear your cry. Would you stop right there!

1. Didn’t the son come to his senses when he hit rock bottom (Lk. 15: 17)?
2. Didn’t he come back home into the welcoming hands of the father (20)?
3. What do you think carried the young man through those terrible times in that far country, but the unyielding faith and prayers of a loving father?
4. If the Father had given up before that time, what would have happened?
5. If you give up now, do you know what you may be giving away?

I pray you remember that God hasn’t given up on your child, just as He didn’t give up on you before Calvary received you. The redemption price for your child has been paid in Jesus and your faith in God’s will is what He asks for in this situation.

So: May you trust Christ to bring your child to the point where coming back home is the only option for them; and may grace carry that child into your welcoming arms, filled with love and joy.

That child will come home because Christ the Redeemer is on their case.

Shalom