In the last week my two youngest kids have moved away from home. So, I’m feeling again the pain and loss that comes with being separated from those we love. Thousands of parents across the country are experiencing similar feelings as children leave home for the first time to go to university.
But imagine how much more painful it is when a child turns their back on their family and walks away. How agonising for loving parents to feel their love rejected and watch helplessly as their child fades into the distance. Well that’s the scene with which Jesus opens his famous story about a Prodigal Son – a child who wished his father dead, took his inheritance and walked away. The Father is left to watch as his son rejects his love and leaves. But the story is about God – not an idea, a concept or an impersonal force in the universe, but a loving Father who feels deeply; and the story is about us who claim our independence and walk away from him. But it’s also a story about God’s patience while we waits, longing for our return.
So, if your heart is aching because you’ve waved your kids off to Uni, remember – that’s how God feels about you.
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