Young Whippersnapper

I (Aimee) still want to talk a little more about the Prodigal Son.

Now let’s talk about the younger, irresponsible, inconsiderate, foolish son. He represents all of us at different times in our lives. For some people, the connection is more obvious, and those times are larger chunks of our lives. But the fact remains that He represents all of us at some point because none of us are perfect. We’ve all strayed at some time or other. If nothing else, belief in our own perfection is a sinful thought … but we’ll talk about the older son later.

 

Like I said last time, the younger son went to his father and asked for permission to pretend his dad was already dead so that he could have his inheritance right away instead of having to wait for the actual event. He wanted to live the life that he wanted without any consideration for his family and their needs or desires. He was tired of doing what his father asked of him. He was tired of being a respectful, dutiful, obedient son.

 

Do you ever get tired of being obedient? I’m sure you have, cause whether we want to admit it or not it really happens to all of us (remember that, “nobody’s perfect” comment above?). We all have times when we decide that we know best what’s best for us. We all have times of selfishness when we don’t consider how our choices for our lives affect the lives of others. We all have times when we turn our back on our Heavenly Father as we set out to do things our own way. We all have times when we say to God, “I’m going to pretend that you’re dead and go off and live my life the way that I want.” 

 

Sometimes we do it subconsciously. Sometimes we’re fully aware of it and do it anyway. Personally, I’m guilty of both.

 

Let’s look specifically at what the son in the story did. First, he insulted and deeply saddened his father with his thoughtless choice. Then, he took the money that he had received and the Bible says he “squandered his wealth in wild living” (v.13, NIV). We can guess what that actually means, and whatever you come up with (e.g.: wine, women, and song) is probably right. After that, there was a famine, so he started becoming desperate. He was so desperate that he hired himself out and became a servant who feed the pigs. For a Jew to take such a job, he would have had to be have been really desperate. But then again, considering what he had already done so far, maybe it wasn’t that much of a stretch. Still … let’s move on. The point was, he was practically starving to death. He was so hungry he considered stealing some of the food that he was supposed to be giving to the pigs. I don’t care who you are, that’s desperation!

 

Finally, the son has the brilliant idea (I love that v.17 says, “he came to his senses”) that he will go back to his father and beg for forgiveness. He also humbles himself. He doesn’t plan to go and ask to be accepted as a son again. He plans to ask his father to hire him as a servant, because he knows that he’ll be better off as a servant of his father than as a servant of this random person in this foreign land. And, we already talked about what happens. His father welcomes him back with love and calls him his son, even after everything he did.

 

The son realized he had been wrong. He thought he had known what was best. He thought he could make better decisions than his father. He went out and tried it and found out that he was way better off submitting himself to his father than trying to make it by himself. As a servant, he would have even less freedom than he had had as the man’s son. But he was willing to go back and humble himself to that position because he knew that it was better than where he was on his own.

 

See? Real wisdom comes when we recognize and admit how much we need our Father. When we turn to Him, He takes care of all of our needs (Matt 6:25-34; Luke 142:4-7, and many more!). Even more than that, the Bible tells us that without God we can’t do anything good (Ephesians 2:1-10, and more).

 

Whenever we sin, God’s just waiting for us to come to our senses so that He can reach out and pulls us back into His arms!

 

I want to repeat what I said last time, because I feel that it bears repeating:

I want to invite you to spend some time thinking about your own life. How many times have you been the younger son (or daughter), and turned your back on your loving Father? How many times has He taken you back? Or perhaps you’ve been holding back because you’ve been afraid that He won’t take you back. Let me assure you that He will. Every time. Without fail.

He loves you.

Thank God for His love and grace. Recognize how much He loves you. Take joy in that knowledge.

 

If you’re still struggling with the whole God-can-forgive-me-no-matter-how-bad-I’ve-messed-up-thing, then I invite you to talk to Him about it. Step before Him and just ask Him if He can forgive you. I’ll bet you’ll be surprised at how quickly He says:

“Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him [or her]. Put a ring on his [or her] finger and sandals on his [or her] feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son [or daughter] of mine was dead and is alive again; he [or she] was lost and is found.” (v.22-24)