One of our most challenging love relationships is that of a parent and child. Parenting experts offer many suggestions on how to lovingly parent even a difficult child, but parents can often feel like failures and need encouragement. And in the past few years, parenting questions have centered more and more around how to deal with adult children!
We don’t know how old the prodigal son was in this story, but he obviously was old enough to get a job, which he eventually had to do. However, before he got to that he asked his father for money in order to go and live somewhere else. It was his inheritance, and he basically left home to go and enjoy the good life while his brother remained, responsibly helping to run the family business. This caused a lot of hurt and “drama” in the family, to say the least.
Family relationships can be messy! As a mother, I have wanted all of my children to be happy, and I have also wanted to be able to encourage them, whatever their life choices, even if I do not agree with what they decide to do. The reality is that love lets the prodigal go, but it never stops looking for the wayward child to return.
In this parable, God is represented by the father of the two boys. He appreciates the son who stays close, but grieves the loss of the one who leaves. He also has to deal with the judgmental attitude of the “good” son in their “family drama.” Whether our adult children stay or go, it can be hard to know how to parent them. We never stop loving our adult children, but need God’s compassionate heart that understands and embraces them, whatever their journey. And we need to trust God to work in their lives while we wait (and pray) for their return.
Father God, your extravagant love never stops watching and waiting for your children to return to you. Please help me to understand your father’s heart, even for me and for my adult child. Give me a sense of hope in the meantime, trusting you to complete your work in my child’s heart. Amen.
For Today: Encourage yourself today, as you wait and pray, by meditating on Philippians 1:6 which says that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Or listen to Steve Green’s song based on this verse: “He Who Began a Good Work in You”.