Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. Luke 15:11-13
“In the quiet stillness, gazing at an empty horizon, we wait like the father in this story, for the prodigal to come back home. And we ask for patience while we nervously search the horizon…
We wait for the prodigals in our lives in such a way that we can express compassion for them when they do come home. We wait for prodigal beloved in a way that enables us to love them instantly, the moment they come their senses, but also in a way that lets them do their own emotional work.
We do not do it for them. That is why waiting well depends on gardening our own hearts. We get on with farming our own land and leave our beloved to hard lessons learned far away. But while we wait for our own to return, we can be citizens in a far country for some one else’s child.
Perhaps you protest my comparison between the lost son an current examples of the way young people squander their resources. Wait a minute, you say. Stories you tell are full of other people’s sins…
Yet isn’t it interesting that the lost son is given no one but himself to blame for getting lost? In Jesus’ day, people would have blamed the boy. Even so, the father forgives. Even if it was his own fault entirely, the father runs to meet him. That insight comforts me.
Even if I am completely to blame for squandering my resources, God forgives and restores me. Can you accept God’s grace for your foolishness? Are we willing to offer God’s grace to other foolish people?”
Joyce Bellous in Gardening the Heart (Toronto: Clements, 2005) 76-78.
Often the hardest person to forgive for bad stewardship decisions in which we squander God’s resources is ourselves. It is similarly difficult to wait with readiness to give grace and compassion to the prodigals in our lives. Let’s follow the example of the father. We must both accept God’s grace for our own foolishness and offer it to others.
Jenni and I are thankful to discuss topics like this at the CBMC retreat in Carlsbad, California (the “birds of paradise” outside our room are pictured above). For those wrestling with accepting and extending grace, we offer this prayer that Bellous offers at the end of this section on the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32).
Lord…show me how this young man’s father waited. Let me see it. Teach me to wait well…Lord Jesus Christ have mercy…Open my heart to my own human need for forgiveness. Help me forgive myself…I will always be foolish unless you help me. I pray not just for myself. Open my heart to forgive…Lord Jesus Christ have mercy.