In my quiet time this morning, I was thinking through the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), trying to see the story new and fresh. Lo and behold, I got a new thought. We always identify the father in the story with God--resist that temptation for a moment. What if all the characters in the story needed to come home, needed a second chance? We already talk about how the older son was far from home but never left the property. What if the father in this story needed to come home, too? What if he was a parent who blew it? Maybe he was a prototype for the workaholic. Maybe he was a womanizer. Maybe he was a drunk. Maybe that's why the younger son wanted out of the home so badly. There's no mention of a mother, let's imagine for a moment that she died young and the father never got over the loss which disconnected him from his sons. It wouldn't be hard to wish that kind of father dead (and in essence, that's what the younger son did by asking for his inheritance before his father died).
Perhaps the younger son's leaving was just the catalyst that the father needed to begin his own journey home. Perhaps that's why he longed and looked for his return. Perhaps that was the impetus for the joyous reunion. The father now, having already had his own season of repenting had been practicing his own line to deliver to the son--maybe that's why the son was never able to get his out.
Thinking this way also explains the older brother and his reaction. It also adds to the potential reunion between that son and the father, too.
I'm just thinking out loud and have much more reflecting to do...would love to get your reaction...
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