The Prodigal Son.

What a wonderful opportunity.

We already eat with pigs and squander our inheritance.

We already know the destruction of life

away from our Father.

But to have the opportunity to return, that is the thing.

That is the miracle of the ages.

Because of a cross in a garbage dump

outside a provincial city in the vastness of the Roman Empire

more than two thousand years ago,

we have the miracle of returning.

That is the opportunity but it is also a risk,

especially in these days of disbelief and mockery

of the reality of a new relationship with God.

Everything can be a deception.

Everything can be a counterfeit.

Except for the humility of confession and repentance

before the cross of Jesus Christ.

To know yourself.

To know your sin before a Holy God

and to admit it, to confess it as such.

To call it rebellion. To root it in self-authority.

To see it as ingrained in your very being apart from God.

Who has the humility to see that truth

if God does not open our eyes?

Spiritual blindness is the deadliest disease.

But also to act. To make a decision. To respond.

To say with the Prodigal Son,

“I will return to my Father’s house.”

To hope for some small favor, some small grace.

To repent.

To turn away from the destruction of life.

But even more, to turn toward home. To pursue Him.

To seek God with all our heart.

To expect nothing more than the privilege of servant hood

but to receive nothing less than

the right to become a son or daughter of God.

To return.

What a wonderful opportunity to be a Prodigal Son.

No wonder the angels rejoice.