The Prodigal Son

The mindset of the father.

Finally, the last elder chimed into the discussion. This elder saw the story through the eyes of the father. The father had no choice. The son knew that the money was his for the asking so when he asked the father had to give it to him. The father had his heart broken. He knew the son did not have the maturity to handle on that money. He knew that he would only found trouble in that new place he was going. But he had to let him go for him to develop into his own man.

My father faced the same decision. I wanted to go to the preaching training school in Texas. My mother told me that there was no way that I was allow to go. She was completely against the idea. While my father thought it was a dumb idea but he knew I had to find my own pathway in life. In order for me to become a man I had to go on this journey. I had to make it on my own. He convinced mother that they had to let me go so I come develop and mature.

The father felt the same way. He had to let the boy go even if it would lend to trouble. The boy had to become his own man. There comes a point in every father’s life where he has to let his children make their own choices, even if he knows they are poor decisions. You can not shelter children for their whole lives. They have to choose if they will follow the Lord or not.

The father was in agony for all that time that the son was gone. He could have received reports on his behavior since this was in the first century. It had to break his heart to know how far his son fell into sin. He loved his son and only wanted the best for him. He wanted to protect his son and care for him but he had to sit back and hope and pray for the best.

So many parents have been in the shoes of the father of the prodigal son. Their children are unfaithful to the Lord but they have tried to talk with them about coming back but they have been rejected for so long that they have given up discussing it. So they sit back every night and pray that they will return to the Lord. Their hearts are breaking over their lost children.

Imagine how happy the father was where he saw his son approaching in the distance. His heart must have jumped for joy, but there had to be some doubt, he probably looked everyday for his sons return and many days passed and still no son. But this day it was different. He saw his son slowly make his way home. The father had no choice but to greet him with a kiss.

This reminds me of a scene in “Gone With The Wind.” Ashley went off to war and was captured. He was in a Yankee prison camp. The war ended and Ashley never returned home. Finally, one day Melanie was working on the front porch and see saw a man coming. This was a common occurrence for men to come to the home for food on their way back home. Then she realized that this stranger was her beloved Ashley. She ran out to greet him.

The son started pleading with the father to take him back but he did not want to hear it. Instead he started making plans for a party to celebrate the return of his son. He was so overjoyed that he killed the fattened calf.