“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20 NLT)
Do you know that the word prodigal can have two meanings?
Prodigal: spending resources freely and recklessly, wastefully extravagant, imprudent, profligate.
Prodigal: having or giving something on a lavish scale, generous, liberal, unstinting, unsparing, bounteous.
I can remember my mother telling me that it wasn’t so much the son in this story that was prodigal, as it was the Father. The Father held nothing back.
I heard a sermon at General Council last summer that has stuck with me. The preacher challenged; if we could hold our head to God’s chest and press our ear to hear His heartbeat, it would read “give.” The heart of God is generosity. His love for us is prodigal. How do we know for sure? He sent His son Jesus to bring us home.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NLT)
Prodigal Fathers keep looking and keep loving. Prodigal people live likewise.
As we learn to receive and believe God’s love for us, we also learn to uncurl our own fists. The proximity of His heartbeat re-syncopates our own and we begin to live out the big give also. We become generous, compassionate. We start searching the skyline for lost lambs coming home. We aren’t waiting to indict or judge, but to welcome brothers and sisters back into the family fold. We are ready to love them with the hands and feet of heaven. We are ready and willing to teach them how to prayerfully watch for the next potential saints on the horizon.
Lord help us love like You do. Prodigal. Extravagant. Prolific. Change our hearts from self-indulgent to serving. Give us the courage to keep loving and keep looking, even when wayward sons and daughters have hurt our hearts. Let us never give up on the best in them because You have never given up on us. Amen.