Daily Devotional

I love a good story. I love hearing stories and I love telling them. This is no doubt why I appreciate the way Jesus told stories to make a spiritual point. Whether short or long, Jesus’ stories are always profound. The Prodigal Son is my favorite story that Jesus told. I first fell in love with this parable when I was about 15 years old, and the lure of “prodigal” living was growing more and more enticing. I made plenty of mistakes, acted like the foolish son in the story, and found myself feeling that I wasn’t worthy to be called a son to my Heavenly Father.

Sin loves darkness, it loves distance, it loves isolation. Sin wants nothing more than to keep us alone and feeling sorry for ourselves. All the while we have a Heavenly Father who loves light, who loves closeness, who loves us. While the Prodigal Son was wasting time longing to eat pig food, he had a father who was longing for him to come home.

Finally, the son comes to his senses and decides to go home and beg for a place serving in his father’s house. As he heads home, I’m sure that his nervousness is building by the mile. Finally, his childhood home is within sight and no doubt he was beyond anxious. Here’s the part of the story that still hits me every time I read it; his father ran to him. His father was looking for him, waiting for him, and when he finally saw his son, he ran to him not to offer rebuke but to offer an embrace.

When we get off track we don’t need to linger away from the Father. We don’t need to hope He’ll take us back. When we finally come to our senses and head back to our Father, we won’t find Him a long way off, we won’t find Him standing with arms crossed in judgment, what we’ll see when we finally turn back is our Father running to us with arms open.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.