Beyond The prodigal

 I was reading about The prodigal son this week how he went and spent all of his fortune wasted his young life partying and gallivanting around the country. Probably having the time of his life until his funds ran out and his friends left him and then he got to the end of his rope. He realized there was no place to go but home. He thought about home and he remembered his father was good to his servants. So, he decided he would try to go home and beg to be a servant.  I fast forward past the party when the father receives him and I think about what his life might have been past the moment of acceptance by his dad.

Was he able to recognize the cost at which his father received him? Was he able to recognize the opportunity he had for change? When I think of myself returning home those are the things I think about. It cost my father in heaven everything to bring me back to him. It cost his son his life for me so I could live, so I could experience love and acceptance, forgiveness and joy and a sense of belonging. And so I hope that the prodigal son after his big party of homecoming could keep those things in his heart and continue to live in gratefulness and thanksgiving. And, in deep understanding of what it is like to come from a place of desolation to a place of total acceptance and total love. 

This week coming up is holy week. I want to be able to reflect on the cost that it took our father in heaven to call me out of darkness and into his light. The cost that it took for him to hunt me down and bring me back to him, to wait for me as this father waited for his prodigal son.  I want to make everyday count because I know what it is like to be without him and I know what it is to be with him and I want to be ever grateful and thankful and joyful and celebratory of all of the opportunities I have to rejoice and praise my father in heaven for the work that he has done for me, and not only for me, but for you and for those of us who believe in him. I hope you have a wonderful holy week.