We have all heard the story of the Prodigal son. We have 3 protagonists in this story – the father and his two sons. Each character comes to the story with their respective characteristic – which could resemble us in one way or another.

If you examine the story of the younger son, he decides to take the inheritance in advance from the father. Once he gets the inheritance from his father, we can see in Luke 15:13 that he gathers all he has and sets off to a distant land. We can understand from this scripture that the son wants to get away from his family as farther as possible. He has taken his share of the assets which his father had made over his lifetime, and decides to enjoy life in wild living as the Bible says. But as with all wild ways, this also comes to its end very soon and the son is penniless. Now he has to work with a pig-farmer yearning to eat something but the farmer does not give him any. After a while, he realizes that his father’s house has plenty and decides to go back to the father and ask for mercy and repents from his erroneous ways. Just imagine his behavior when he left the house versus the behavior when he returned.

The next is the elder brother, who notices his younger brother’s return and the subsequent celebration; but refuses to come into the house. After all, he did all that his father expected from him like a good elder son – he followed the rules and didn’t squander his money; but he cannot accept his younger brother who abandoned the family once and now wants to be part of the household again.

Then we see the father – he did not decline when his son asked for his share of property; and even though the son abandoned the family the father always kept looking at the horizon eagerly waiting for his longlost son to come back, and when he did return he ran and hugged him unlike how a normal father would have behaved. Even when the elder son created a fuss outside the home, he cajoled and taught him love and forgiveness. How many of us are like this father in our character? Do we forgive others who disappoint us just as Christ forgave us of all our sins? Or are we like the elder son – the holiest believers who cannot accept a sinner or backsliding member into our church or families. We were once in darkness but Christ brought us out into light, forgave our sins and brought us into a life of rejoicing and happiness with an eternal hope that we are forever accepted as his sons and daughters. Just as the father demonstrated, let us show mercy to the disobedient and bring them into His marvelous Light!

Highlight: Do we forgive others who disappoint us just as Christ forgave us of all our sins?