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We call the story, "The Prodigal Son,"although some, perhaps more accurately, call it, "The Loving Father." A young man from a well-to-do home, cared for by loving parents, trades his security for an early inheritance, and, eventually, pig slop. He thought he had life figured out and certain that pleasure would be his satisfaction. How wrong he was! When his money ran out, so did any so-called friends, and having no resources for basic necessities, he came to his senses in the pigpen. He hadn’t forgotten "home," or the provision his father gave even to the hired servants. His misery humbled him, "home" called from the distance, and with an acknowledgment of both his sin and the one he had sinned against, he turned and journeyed home. An ever-hopeful, ever-longing father literally ran out to meet him. The love of the father was unchanged and fully embraced the son who had deliberately walked away from him.
Typically, the story is interpreted to present a message of salvation for the sinner whose senses have been awakened and he turns toward the only hope that can redeem a life messed up and scarred by wrong and debilitating choices. It is John 3:16 in story form. God so loved that He gave His Son to bring a wayward humanity into a relationship with Himself. I see the story though too as one that offers hope for the believer who has known the love of her Father; she has known the security of living in His presence, being nourished at His table, delighting in the gifts of His provision – and for whatever reason, whatever faulty thinking or temptation that has drawn her, she turns her back on all of it. She makes those choices that put her in a place far from God, finds perhaps even a temporary satisfaction, but in a much shorter time than she ever expected, her spirit is in the wrenches of despair and dissatisfaction. She longs for home, and she feels so very, very far away.
Her Father though has not forgotten her. He has not given up on her. He has not abandoned her. He longs for sooo much more for her. And His Spirit speaks to her spirit. She has seen the waste and the emptiness. She begins to yearn for something more, and she again remembers home. The joy of reality is the same joy as in the story. Her Father knows her heart, and her Father knows she has chosen again, but this time her choice will turn her toward her Father. And He literally runs out to meet her. He embraces her and welcomes her home, and offers her not the fragments of things left behind or splinters of His promises, but He lavishes on her the fullness of His Fatherhood and the abundance of His resources. She is home, void of shame and guilt, and delighting in being the daughter of her Father.
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