Waiting is worth the Wait.

“The Prodigal Son” is a very famous parable that Jesus used to express the love of the Father for sinners like us. This parable is the third of its series found in Luke 15. The first parable talks about the lost sheep; second about the lost coin and the third is about the lost son. All three of them talks about the lost of something precious to someone. As for a father, no loss can be greater than losing of his son or daughter.

This parable tells us that a man had 2 sons. One of them decided to betray the father’s trust and to leave home with his share of his father’s estate. What the son demanded for was totally out of norm (vs 12). In the context of the 1st Century Galilee, the demand that the younger son did was totally unacceptable by the society. It is seen as a greatest betrayal and the community will reject the son entirely. In normal circumstances, an estate is only divided among the rightful heirs upon the death of the father. Not only demanding the estate to be divided but vs. 13 tell us that the sons chose to leave his father’s home. He left his security and comfort zone with the great wealth that he has inherited from the father. It was a choice to leave the Father and to indulge into sinful activities.

Today in our own lives, we too make a lot of choices. Sometimes, our choice seems to be against God’s perfect will. We think we know everything. We think what we know what is the best for us. We think we can survive and be independent with what we have – We too make wrong choices just as the prodigal son did. At times we are so impatient that we don’t wait for God’s timing. The son’s time to divide the estate and to leave home was not up yet. But his impatient and greed led him to betray his father’s trust and demand for a split in inheritance and left the home. We too at times, are very impatient. We bulldoze our ways through to get what we want. We don’t want to wait for God’s timing and often gets our self into trouble just as the prodigal son got himself into.

Let us be reminded, as children of God if we don’t wait upon the Lord and seek to choose our own ways in life we will surely end up in misery. Our security and blessings are only when our lives are centered in God’s perfect Will. When we sway away from God’s plans and ways, we may enjoy a temporary form of materialistic blessing which will not last. The prodigal son did not die or became paralyzed when he betrayed his father. In fact, he left home happily with his great estate. He enjoyed all his wealth. But because he was not in the center of God’s will, he sinned against God eventually he lost all that he had. He became a desperate man who was even without basic necessities (food). Let us be cautioned, that prosperity and wealth that is accumulated outside of God’s will, will eventually lead us to ruin and disaster.