Always a Son!

Life teaches us many lessons, and in the most unusual circumstances. Like you, I have heard the parables of the lost sheep, coin, and son many times, and heard them preached until I knew the script in detail. Until now, that is, when something was brought to my attention. I knew it in my head, but it had not reached my heart until now. It has to do with the lost son.

He is described as ‘lost’ and a ‘prodigal’ who wasted his life with the pigs in the sty, where he was so low he ate with the animals. Having been born into a wealthy, stately home, this was quite a climb down. We are told his father loved him, and after all, he ran to meet him eventually. Did he go into the sty to get him? No. Did he try to persuade his son out of the mess with fine searching words? No. The father’s actions only started after one thing which was done by the son, and that timing was not known to the father.

The son was always just that. A son. He was never anything else, and it didn’t matter where he was, or in what condition. He was still a son in his father’s eyes. Demanding his inheritance, and wasting the money did not change the fact that he was still his father’s son. The only person who didn’t always see it, or feel it  was the son! Ironic, isn’t it?

To me, the application became clearer. I am my Father’s son, my Heavenly Father’s son, and it doesn’t matter what I get myself into, or how I treat my Father, I am still His son! He only needs me to realise something, or to be more precise, to do something. What was it that prompted the prodigal father’s action? It was the fact that the lost son had to realise he was lost, and then these words, which I love, “He came to himself”! He realised that his Father loved him, although not sure of his welcome, but he started for home anyway. You know the rest of the story. He is accepted into the family as a full heir and confirmed as the son he always was, with all the forgiveness and love that his father can give him. No doubt, no second thoughts, no fears.

My lesson is not in the homecoming, although that is great, but in the realisation that the prodigal son (still a son) “came to himself”, as a personal decision, and a self realisation. No music. No fanfare. No sermon. His choice. The music and the words already had their time in his life. Now it was his responsibility to respond, and he knew it. He “came to his senses” and his father immediately responded. I wonder what it will take to bring us to the same place? I trust it is not one of those ‘pig sty’ experiences!