Home to his Father

“He got right up and went home to his father. “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20, The Message)

The (sadly in some sense too) familiar story of the prodigal son is one of my favorite portions in the Bible.   What need do we have to look for a better picture of grace than the portrait drawn here by Christ himself?  A profligate, wastrel who has squandered everything he was ever given (he inherited it).  A descent into the depths of misery.  A return to his wealthy father, expecting only to be hired as a servant.  But what is this?  My father, the dignified elderly man (in the culture in which this story is told an elderly father, patriarch of the family, would never run to greet anyone, more less a prodigal son) running! out to meet his long lost, but always remembered son?  The son welcomed back, not as a servant, but as the son he is (and always) was.  Grace upon grace.

How did it all start?  What set everything in motion?  He got right up and went home...to his father.

You are a prodigal?  Get up and go home, your father is waiting, eagerly.