Luke 15:11-24 [NLT]
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’ “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. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

Dear God, I know this isn’t an actual story, but a parable so I should be careful of how much I read into people’s motives in it. However, this story is a representation of you and some of the children you love (possibly me, although I am more likely the older brother), so perhaps I should consider some aspects of this that I haven’t considered before.

The big one is, as a father of grown children, I now wonder more about this son. What drove him? What motivated him? I’ve always just seen him as greedy and selfish, but as a dad I try to consider what is driving the actions I see from my children. Do you consider the same thing when you see us wander (or run) away from you?

For example, in this case, when you see one of your children running after self-indulgence, do you consider their past when assessing your response? Do you look at trauma done to them? Do you consider addiction? Do you think about how they never learned to live their neighbor as themselves? I think the answer is obvious. Of course you do. I do it when I look at my kids, and you know all of us better than I know my own children, or even myself.

Father, in the end, the answer still comes back to the same place where this part of the parable ends. Each of us has to come to the end of ourselves. Some of us have lower boiling points than others. We get there quicker. But my prayer for my own children is that you would be with each of them on their journeys through life and please keep me from doing things that will hinder you from molding each of them into the people you know they can be. And do everything so that all of us might decrease and you increase.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen