The Prodigal's Returnናሙና

Go Home!

Kim Harmon

[Luke 15:17-20 MSG] “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ 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.”

It is only at our lowest point that we can look past our personal pride and selfish indulgences to see how desperately we need help. The prodigal son finally reaches his lowest point and compares his current condition to his worst memories of home. Home may mean your family who loves you and prays fervently for you to seek real help. Home may also mean a group of genuine Christians in a Sunday School class or other small group. Regardless, there are people who will love you back to Christ. Home is your safe place to grow with Jesus. Home is those friends with whom you can have dinner and talk about every high and low. Regardless of your idea of Home, God the Father wants you to return to Him, to his house. He wants your relationship with Him to be restored.

Realizing his circumstances, the son in this parable humbly returns home. His Father RUNS to him and hugs him tightly. A celebration begins because the son realized his best chance in real life, a peaceful life is to Go Home. There are moms, dads, sisters, brothers, and prayer warriors waiting for you to say you are coming home. I remember an old song where the son returning home wrote his parents a letter saying, “If it is okay for me to get off the train and return home, tie a white rag in the tree in the front yard so I know I can return. ”The story in the song says the tree was covered in white rags because his parents so longed for his return. What a beautiful image.

There is hope in this parable. The Father has hope that the returning son will make better choices. The Father did not ask the son to prove himself first and does not hold the past over him. There is a new start. There are circumstances of the prodigal leaving with his half of the inheritance and squandering it. However, the love and comforts of home were not gone but were waiting on the son’s return.

Whatever it looks like, you have a home where people love you and want what is best for you. You may have to go to a local church to find it, but there is still a home for you somewhere. As long as you are breathing, there is hope you will return home.

God, help me find home. Help me return home. Help me find people who will love me back to the right relationship with You. Help me find people to encourage me and lift me up in prayer without enabling my bad choices. Amen.