Devotionals

  "When the Prodigal Returns"

As I was thinking of this devotion a scripture came to me that you and I as minister’s wives remember when working with people who have never served the Lord or have turned their back on Him.  In James 5:19-20 it states, “If one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

The difficult part of this is often the person we may be working with is a wayward child.  There is no pain like the pain of a mother whose child willfully rejects the love of God.  Jesus reminds us of another family’s tragedy when their son left home and took all his inheritance and squandered it recklessly on a loose-from restraint lifestyle. When he had spent all and a famine (difficult times) came, he began to fall behind in his bills and other obligations causing him to be homeless, eating from the garbage of others.  This could well be a 21st century story.  Many sons and daughters left home with anticipation of a great life only to find themselves overwhelmed with despair. Bill! Bills! Bills!  If not a financial problem maybe they are faced with a drug or alcohol problem.  The fact is the parsonage is often no insulation from the difficulties of life.

I am especially glad that when the prodigal came to himself, realizing his dilemma he went to the father and said, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; just make me as one of your hired servants.”
The father welcomed him with open arms and had a celebration.  There’s a lesson here for you and I as parents today.  Christian families aren’t immune to the heartbreak of a prodigal child, but often we respond with judgmental attitude and alienation rather than with open arms and a joyful celebration. We tend to be more like the older brother than the forgiving father often refusing to ignore the past and to forgive and love again. We see families torn apart by the pain of a wayward child. The evening news tells us that there are many parents suffering daily with the problems brought on by the choices of their children. When they put a picture of a child on the TV screen I immediately think of the parent and the pain they must be experiencing.

The restoration Jesus describes requires that we allow God to judge wrongdoing.  Our assignment is to foster healing and recovery, to rejoice in regeneration. Finding the lost sheep, the good shepherd joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. I love the 23rd
and 24th verse of Luke 15 when the father said, “Bring out the fattened calf and kill it, and let us revel and feast and be happy and merry; Why? Because my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!”  Can you feel the joy of the father over the son’s return?  We know how it feels when our lost children come home, the joy overtakes us and we want to put on a spread. Life does not answer the questions of why one child stays and never disobeyed and the other leaves.  You never love one child more than the other but at times one may need more care. As I read these scriptures I realize this father was a compassionate forgiving man when he speaks to the Son who stayed, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

We must as women of God seek to reclaim the lost sheep not only in our sheepfold but in others.  God give us the ability to love the unlovable and be godly agents of restoration and renewal.

Paulette Chitwood
State Women’s Ministries Director