The parable of the prodigal son is about everyone of us. But you don’t need me to tell you that, huh? It becomes painfully obvious as we try to find our way home to God. We all have a longing to be reunited with something from which we have been cut off. We long for significance, to be accepted, welcomed, taken in….we seek it in many places but only One can provide it for us. Timothy Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, says that it is in the beginning of the book of Genesis that we learn the reason we all feel like exiles. We were created to live in the garden of God, with God. It was a place of no parting from love, no decay, no disease. We were there to adore Him, serve Him, to know Him, to enjoy Him. That is the country, the original home we were created for. But we wanted to live without God’s interference and we turned away. We have been prodigals, wandering exiles ever since, trying to live in a world that no longer fits our deepest longings.
Just like the Father in this parable ran to meet the son, God ran to meet me in the life of Jesus. He longs to restore me so much that he experienced that same exile for himself. When the Father meets his child, I see no rebuke, no lecture, no waiting to see if repentance is true….I see acceptance and welcome. The very thing I long for with all my being. And then there is celebration! A homecoming party! Our party awaits us too! At the end of the book of Revelation, at the end of history, there is a feast (Revelation 19). This feast is in the City of God with the very presence of God. At the end of history the whole earth has become the Garden of God again! Even the tree of life will be there. My wandering and never arriving will come to an end! Praise God that He has never abandoned us. I cannot wait for His hug to welcome me home!
Julie Hallman
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