Your Open Word e-Devotional for March 22nd,

Published: Mon, 03/22/21

Hello ,

Imagine the following scenario for just a moment. Your youngest son leaves home, disavowing you as his father. He takes a large portion of your estate with him, proceeds recklessly, and with big plans in his mind for really living without you in his life, he walks away. You watch him leave, and your heart cries out in love for him, wishing that somehow you could share the immense love in your heart for him, even as he turns his back on you and your entire family.

Time goes by, but every day you look for this long, lost boy on the road that leads back your home. Will he ever return? Will you ever see him again?

One day as you are looking longingly down the road, you see the ragged figure of a man on the distant horizon. As he comes nearer and nearer, his feet slowly dragging on the dusty road, you see something familiar about him. It is your youngest son; emaciated and forlorn, but alive.

The boy who is returning home, is not the cocky, self-assured boy who left. His shoulders droop, and his countenance is cast downward as he haltingly approaches. He begins to pour out his heart to you in quiet tones, admitting that he has nothing to offer in terms of value to the family.

You stop him mid-sentence and throw yourself upon him, embracing him and kissing his neck. Your son is home. The child that you thought was pobably dead, is alive!

What will you do next? Will you scold him? Will you tell him, "I told you so!" and follow it up with passionate diatribe of how reckless he was?

If you look deeply into the story of the Prodigal Son, you will see behavior from the father in this narrative that is the stuff of relational dreams. He embraces the son, he kisses his neck, he takes him into the house, puts a new robe on him, and gives him a debit card.

A debit card??

When I recently heard this comparison, I was taken aback. When I stopped and thought about it though, it made perfect sense. The signet ring was often an instrument of payment ( a promissory note if you will). The father puts the family signet ring back on the hand of the son who has proven (beyond the shadow of doubt), that he doesn't know how to handle money; and yet, the ring bears the father's name, and the son now wears it.

Let me urge you to read this story once again, and marvel at God's ability to love us...even when we have blown it on our journey here. If you don't have your Bible with you today, you can find this narrative here.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word