God’s love extends to us even when we live in a distant land

On the story of the Prodigal Son

I MET a fellow dog walker while taking our dog Lola along the beach. He recognised me from a funeral service I had conducted some weeks before and we began talking. He shared with me that he had not been to church since Sunday school days.

He gave many reasons, the upheaval of leaving home to complete National Service, working long hours to support his growing family, seeing his children grow up and leaving home. Then the sad loss of his dear wife had led him to think about God and he had even given serious thought about attending church again. Regrettably he never did, too many years had passed and because of this he felt that he was (in his own words) “not good enough to return”. When I said that I often felt the same he was quite taken aback. “You’ve got to be good,” he said, “it’s your job!”

I reminded him of the story of the Prodigal Son and he smiled as if he was familiar with the story. Then, surprisingly, he said: “Isn’t that about the boy who came home and became a servant in his father’s kitchen?”

At least he was partly right! In the story Jesus told of a rebellious son who demanded his inheritance and left his home in anger. When the money ran out and his so-called friends deserted him and he was homeless and starving, he began thinking of home and the possibility his father would accept him as one of his well cared for servants.

He never gave thought to the possibility that his father’s love had never diminished and that daily his father looked to the distant land in the hope his son would return home.

God never gives up on us. The story ends with an old man running across the fields, a cloak, a ring and sandals for the feet of the lost boy. Embracing him in forgiveness and joy at his return, there followed celebration and rejoicing because that which was lost had been found. It’s the same for us, and this season of Lent leads us to the very heart of God’s Easter love of forgiveness and new life. God’s love extends to us even when we live in the distant land and far from him.

Perhaps it’s time to come home to the welcome that awaits us and to prove the truth of a much-loved hymn: “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”

Indeed, Amazing Grace!