Prodigal- spending resources wastefully or recklessly.

This Father’s Day I can really identify with the father in the prodigal son story. It is not that I have been always loving with our own two sons but rather I would have loved it if they could have just gotten along for more than 10 minutes!

The younger son in the story Jesus tells is selfish, manipulative and foolish. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all how his father feels and he doesn’t even take the time to say goodbye to his brother.

But somewhere in the distant city where he falls below even the bottom of the barrel he wakes up. Suddenly he gets just how much he has failed and he returns home a broken young man.

On the other side of the county the older and more obedient brother is toiling away in his father’s fields. As the afternoon comes to a close he hears the sound of music and dancing from some sort of outdoor celebration. As he gets closer one of the men who works with him on the farm brings him news of his brother’s return and the restoration his father had given him.

Wow! Talk about mad! If it had been possible there would have been steam coming out of his nostrils! He could not believe that his Dad had been so foolish to give the younger brother the money in the first place. Now with this wretched failure crawling home he definitely has no idea why his Dad would celebrate. “Celebrate!” he probably muttered. “I’d like to wring his neck!”

What the good son along with most of the rest of us can’t understand is the prodigal wastefulness of our father. Our Heavenly Father’s heart is just so off the wall that we can scarcely imagine what he is thinking of.

But the father in the story had more in mind than just giving his robe his ring and his shoes to his son. Most of all in the middle of the feasting and joy the prodigal father longed that through his over-the-top forgiveness he would see the healing and restoration of everyone in his family.

Whether you are a father or not today remember that all of us have a heavenly Father who like the prodigal father longs to recklessly give us his heart and see a full restoration between us as well as all the rest of His family!