God Takes Our Imperfect Sorrow And Makes It Perfect
Saturday in the Second Week of Lent
My dear encountered couples:
This parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most famous. It touches our hearts. The son goes off, spends his father’s money wastefully and sinfully, then returns, not to be reprimanded, but to be hugged, loved, and celebrated.
It is the father who is to be the center of our attention here. For he represents God in regard to all of us — God who will take any kind of chance we give him to show us his forgiveness and love, whether we deserve it or not.
The prodigal son did not deserve it. Did you notice that his motive for coming home was not the best?
It wasn’t because he had a change of heart towards his father and family. It wasn’t because he wanted to show them how much he loved them and wanted to make their lives happier.
It was because he was broke and the pigs he ended up caring for had better food than he had. In fact we are told he wasn’t offered any food at all.
That’s what brought him to his senses, not perfect sorrow for hurting his father, not family love. It was purely survival and self-concern that set him on his road home.
His father didn’t care, as long as his son came home. Let us hope that son eventually did have a change of heart, that his imperfect sorrow became perfect. Now it’s our turn. Let’s go home to our heavenly Father. “Forgive me Father for I have sinned.”
