Eternal, All Powerful, Creator of all, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End... Whatever name you use to refer to the God we serve we know we worship the greatest of possible beings.  We believe in a God who is worthy of all our devotion and all possible worship and we know our God is on the Throne. Let me start off by saying this is true of the God we serve and we must remember that, but after studying through the parable of the lost son I was struck by a thought that was new to me.  

    Here is some context to the story if you aren't familiar with the prodigal son.  The cast of characters involves a father and his two sons.  One day the youngest son comes to the father and demands his portion of the inheritance, and in this culture it was the equivalent of saying to the dad " I wished you were dead!"  The son did not love his father and wanted to live life no longer by the rules of his father but by his own lustful desires.  For whatever reason the father gives in and gives his son his inheritance.  Scripture says the son takes his money and goes to a far away country and wastes it on carnal living.

   So now the son is in a far away land with no more resources and is dying of hunger.  So in desperation he is hired by a gentile (non-Jewish person) to tend to his pigs, now remember this younger son is Jewish and to Jews pigs were unclean animals, so when we use the phrase " rock bottom' this is it.  After some time the son realizes he can no longer go on living this way and decides he will head back home to his father who he wished dead in the past and ask if he could be hired as a servant, because he knew there was no way his father would accept him back as his son, or would he?

   So the son heads back and we get a glimpse right away as to how the father feels about his youngest son who has disrespected him in the highest way.  Scripture says the father was scanning the horizon daily longing for his son to return, and when he saw him in the distance he ran towards him.  The people in that community could not make sense of this, why would the father be so quick to see his son? They had not see anything yet.  The story goes on to say that the father met his son, embraced him and kissed him, remember his son had abandoned his father and lived a sinful lifestyle and also was unclean because he dealt with pigs and by his father touching him the father then to became unclean.   This makes no sense to the Jews who were watching, this son should be disciplining his son and punishing him publicly for the disgrace he brought on the family yet instead the son is restored to his original position and a feast was prepared.  

    Why did the father act this way?  What was Jesus trying to say?  Well the father in this story is God, the younger son represents anyone who is lost and does not believe in Jesus and we are given a glimpse at how God views his lost children.  We began this blog post talking about how God is holy and on the throne but we see here in this parable that God is willing to get off the throne and embrace his lost children when they return to Him.  God is willing to bring shame upon himself in the eyes of those watching because He longs for all his lost children to come home.  Just like the father scanned the horizon daily waiting for his son to come home, God waits daily for his people to return to him, and not to punish or chastise them, but to forgive and embrace them.  You see, God is the hound of heaven and he is the hound of our souls.

     We then should have the heart of the father.  We all have people in our lives who we know are not right with the Lord. SO what should our response be to them?  We should earnestly seek after them and long for them to come home.  We should pray daily for their souls and be ready to be used by God to share the Gospel with them.  We must make the most of our time on this planet to be the hounds of Heaven on earth, so that no soul is left behind, and every last person comes to Christ.  Let's seek after the lost and embrace them when they come home.