Who was the Prodigal?

 

                                                           Who was the Prodigal?

The story about the prodigal son (Luke 15) touches so many hearts.

A self-centered boy, asking for his inheritance early, runs away and squanders all of it, sinks lower than imaginable, desperately returns home to face the consequences of his prodigal lifestyle....

He expects to be treated as a slave and punished. But he is joyously received, forgiven and restored.

What does 'prodigal' mean? The dictionary tells us it means to spend your money or resources freely and recklessly, with wasteful extravagance;  to distribute lavishly and without thought for the future; overly generous to people you hardly know; to be careless with your money without considering what  will happen when it is all gone. What a short-sighted fellow! How foolish! Did he really think he was making true loyal friends with his conduct? Who was he impressing?

He ended up alone and desperate with no place to go but to crawl home and beg a crumb of bread!

But maybe the real prodigal was not the son -- but the father. Didn't he give of his love with reckless abandon? Probably his neighbors considered him foolish to waste his love on his ungrateful son? He was lavish and extravagant with his grace and forgiveness. He didn't even stop to consider if he should welcome his son home - just impulsively received and forgave him - and then restored him to his original position. Extravagant generosity! Talk about being 'prodigal'!  

But, wait -- isn't that the picture of our heavenly Father? 

Maybe we should change the name of the story of "The Prodigal Son" to "The Prodigal Father"?

Have you come home?