God’s love is so unreasonable. I have been thinking about the parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15, for a couple of months now. This is one of those passages that many of us are so familiar with, and have heard preached so many times, that it is easy to read through it without gleaning any new insights.
Back in January, this story suddenly began to speak volumes to me again. Some of the truths are the same ones that have impacted my heart in the past – the unconditional love of the father, his unabashed joy at the return of his son, the sense that with God every transgression is forgivable when we come back to Him through sincere repentance. But a few new revelations have surfaced from this story. I won’t write about all of them here, but I will begin to talk about them this Sunday. One of them is found in a line that I have often simply read over: “The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them” (Luke 15:12).
This Father had the power to withhold the son’s inheritance if he wanted to. Obviously, since this is the younger son and not the elder, the father had already told him at some point that he was going to inherit a share of the estate. That wasn’t always the case. The norm was for everything to go to the oldest boy, and for that boy to have the power to share or not with his siblings. But, even though the father had at some point promised the younger son a share, certainly he would have been justified, given this brazen display of disrespect and plain foolishness, to withhold the inheritance. He wouldn’t even have to do it out of spite; it could be the best tool at his disposal for influencing the boy to change his mind about leaving the family.
How many of us would have tried to coerce, or manipulate the younger son into staying home and doing his chores? He could have been spared a lot of anguish if the father would have simply forced him to do the right thing. Why didn’t the father take that action? I believe it is because this father knew that you can force or manipulate behavior, but not relationship. It is the very same reason that God does not always intervene in the affairs of men on earth. It is why He has chosen to allow us to make both good and bad choices, even though those choices often cause pain on earth and in Heaven. God loves relationship, and relationship must be freely chosen.
Certainly love will confront, correct, discuss, encourage, and pray, but it is important for us to know where loving confrontation ends, and manipulation and coercion begin. The Father, in love, let this son have the space to make a mistake, which led to him having the space to choose to return forever; something to think about, and something to pray about. “Holy Spirit, we need your wisdom daily to walk that line.”
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Good stuff John. Just shows to go ya how alive the word is and how great the Lord is to nurture us along as we grow.
ReplyDeleteAs a father of 4 adult sons the message is very clear and the lesson's been a hard one to learn as a father. Our children have to make their own mistakes, not only for the learning and character building mistakes provide, but sometimes more importantly, their ownership of those mistakes.
If I as a father coerce a child, and that child makes a mistake - then it's blame dad time and it becomes my mistake and a strain on the relationship.
There is a fine line between father son advice and trying to manipulate a child's behavior. I learned a while back that the relationship is best served by allowing my kids to make their own mistakes.
Great message John!
Of course, when children are young, there is certainly a place for parents establishing the correct boundaries and enforcing the rules. But as they grow older, they will need more and more freedom to make their own mistakes.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great picture of our hearts toward our kids. I hope I can be unreasonable too.
ReplyDeleteSometimes our worlds idea of "responsible" doesn't coincide with Godly.
Yes, but please notice my comment above. The letting them go approach is for more mature relationships, not a parent and small child relationship. The son in the parable was a grown son, not a young child.
ReplyDeleteI've been talking with the Holy Spirit about wanting to understand the love of the Father for a couple of months as well.
ReplyDeleteMy prayer has been that He would reveal how much the Father loves me. I figure, if I can grasp that, I can certainly give that love out. It has been incredible how He has answered my prayer, by showing me (as opposed to telling me) His love. It has come in the form of a Word He gave someone for me, intercessory prayer someone did on my behalf, as well as little things He has said regarding my personal thoughts.
I am amazed at His love and am looking forward more learning. I do not think I have even scratched the tip of the iceberg, yet I have been overcome by Him.