January 21, 2024

I remember one time when I was 12 or 13, I found my mother sitting alone in our family’s formal living room. She was holding a picture of my oldest brother, and she was crying. My brother was in Vietnam. The war was at its height, and my brother was one of the thousands of young men who were there serving our country. I tried to console my mom and remind her that he was in one of the safer places in the country. He worked on helicopters and wasn’t in a place of active, ongoing fighting. But my words didn’t help much. All my mom knew was that he wasn’t at home. No matter where he was, she wouldn’t rest until he was back.
That’s also the heart of God that we see displayed in this story. Notice that our passage says, “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.” How did the father see him if he was still a good way off? He was watching. Waiting and watching. That’s what every good parent would do who has a child away from home.
Yes, the father had a ranch to run. Yes, there were flocks to tend to, crops to care for, and hired hands to manage. But always in the mind of the father was his missing son. My guess is that he was continually looking out the window, staring down the road, praying to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure in the distance. Then one day, HE SEES HIM! Though wearing tattered clothes and looking a mess, his father recognizes his boy. No more worrying. No more wondering. No more pacing the floor or making his pillow wet with tears. His son has come home.
If you’ve wandered away, that’s God’s heart for YOU. He’s waiting. He’s watching. But there’s one thing more. He’s also WORKING. God’s Spirit is working all around you and within you to draw you home. No matter where you’ve been, how messed up you’ve become, or what you’ve done, your father still loves you. He’ll never give up hope, He’ll never give up waiting, and He’ll never stop looking over the banister of Heaven to see if today’s The Day. The day His Lost Child finally comes home. That’s God’s Word for you today.