Like many of you out there, I’ve always had questions about the parable of the Prodigal Son. For instance, why was it such a big deal that he asked for his inheritance early? My pastor put an end to my wonderings: to the Jewish people of the time, asking for your inheritance was tantamount to wishing your father dead. It was a breach in relationship that could not be mended. Except that the father in the story does mend it — just as God mends the breaks we make with God, over and over, on a daily basis.
Does God make it too easy for us to return home? Maybe. But if God made it harder, we’d never come. Imagine the waiting God does for us! Perhaps a modern perspective will help:
Waiting became habit;
habit became a life.
Day after day,
your father longed for you.
His world became one chair,
one single pane of glass.
Through the window,
he could track the hour
of every package delivery,
chart the bladder capacity
of every dog on the block.
He missed nothing.
When you came,
he was out of his seat in a shot,
prepared to embrace
even your apparition.
Your real flesh,
on the welcome mat,
made him weep.
Yet all the time
you embrace him,
your eye is on the door.
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August 17, 2018 at 11:25 pm
calensariel
Oh gosh, Lori… I have a big lump in my throat now… May I copy this one, too? We’ve spent a LOT of time talking about this in our Space for God group. In fact, we’re going to be reading Henri Nouwen’s Return of the Prodigal Son together. I’ve read it before and led a women’s retreat on it. I decided at that time it was really the father who was the prodigal. The second definition of prodigal is: having or giving something on a lavish scale. That’s certainly what the father in the parable did when the son came home. That’s what our “Father” does, too, just as you said.
August 18, 2018 at 3:07 am
loristrawn
You just blew my mind. I never even considered that perspective!
August 17, 2018 at 11:34 pm
calensariel
Reblogged this on Impromptu Promptlings and commented:
Lori Strawn over at praypower4today has written a poem that really tugged at my heart — especially the last line. Wanted to share it with you… I always love a poem that makes me feel so deeply. Thank you, Lori, for touching my heart with your words.
August 18, 2018 at 3:06 am
loristrawn
You are welcome, my friend.
August 17, 2018 at 11:37 pm
Waiting for the Prodigal — Lori Strawn (praypower4today) | Impromptu Promptlings
[…] Strawn over at praypower4today has written a poem that really tugged at my heart — especially the last line. Wanted to share […]
October 18, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Visionariekind
powerful