Return of the Prodigal son- Rembrandt
How interesting I thought as I began to prepare for next Sunday's Mothering Sunday Service (always the 4th Sunday in Lent here in he UK), that the lectionary reading for the day is the Prodigal Son, the parable that gives us such a beautiful picture of the Father Heart of God...
...over recent months I have struggled with what it means for me as a woman to be made in God's image, this has led me to considering what it might be to call God "She", to accept that if I am truly made in God's image as the Bible says then God must be Mother as well as Father- through this musing I have come to the conclusion that God transcends all of our descriptions and any attempt to fully describe/ label God is doomed to failure....
So I decided to read the parable again in a new light, in the light that this parable gives us a snapshot into God's heart... and in that snapshot we receive a glimpse of the One who sets us free, and yet holds us in love...
...and I guess that any parent/ lover/ true friend can catch within themselves an image of what that might mean...
... this is particularly poignant for me this week because Joanne and Jonathan officially become adults on Wednesday... they will celebrate their 18th Birthday with a BBQ (mad for March tis true). In October, if all goes well with their A'levels, they will be leaving home for student halls in Sheffield and Lancaster.
Am I as a parent ready to let them go?
What can I learn from the Father in this parable?
Now I am thankful that their plans are good, and that they are not heading off to squander my (non-existent) fortune on wild living, but they will inevitably run into temptations they have not faced before, and will essentially be on their own to make decisions...
As I meditated on the words I discovered in this father one who watched and waited, he had allowed his son to leave, a heart wrenching decision in itself...and not only to leave but to take a fortune with him...
The young man disappeared out of sight, but not out of mind, and certainly not out of his fathers heart... I am sure that the father being influential had means of knowing how his son was faring, yet he did not intervene, he simply watched and waited.
The watching and waiting, took the form of prayer, and as we see the young man struggling to get to grips with his situation, hungry and dirty and deserted by his new found "friends", he remembers home... and plans to return..asking for mercy...
The father could have taken an attitude of "I told you so". he could have taken the son back as a servant, requiring him to work of the debt of his squandered inheritance...
...he could have but he didn't,he was watching and waiting, holding his son in love, as he saw him appear on the horizon, throwing all decorum to the wind he runs and gathers the repentant boy up in an embrace, brushing aside all attempts at an apology, the decision to return home was repentance enough....
Here we see the grace of God in action, embracing the wanderer, receiving the repentant heart with love and not with recriminations....
God shows us through this parable the heart of a heavenly parent, father or mother, it hardly matters, what matters is that we are held, always held in God's love, every single one of us, female or male, brother or sister, mother or father, lover or friend, we are held in God's love, waited for and watched over no matter where we go, and heaven's door is always open for us to return no matter what we have done or where we have been...
As I contemplate my twins leaving home, I know Tim and I will hold them in love, and will watch and wait in prayer to see where their lives decisions take them, and if they need to return home the door will be open- even though we usually tell them we will move and not leave a forwarding address- we are able to joke in that way because they know this is not true!!! I have to allow them their freedom willingly...
This is what God does for us, we can always return to Her in prayer for advice and comfort , we can always look to Him for strength for the task... and we will find the comfort strength and grace that we need in the love of God- a love that will never let us go....
(hmmm seems I've started a preach here- guess I'll have to keep working on it!)
Return of the prodigal daughter (received by her mother) by Caroline MacKenzie
