Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones.

Another beautiful morning before us.

Well—it’s no longer 8:01am, but 8:49am. The first interruption was seeing Taffy out the window looking for puddles of water in the tarps—which are all dried up now. I inspected her water dish in here. Oh no!—it’s empty! I quickly filled the dish and went outside to offer it to her. She drank for about 5 minutes. Then Becki showed up for our walk/jog routine. Then I accommodated the dogs at the creek—throwing balls for them. Now we have to rush to make it to church.

Time to run. Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Here is a vital key to the lost son’s restoration—HE CAME TO HIS SENSES—allowing the conversion from LOST to FOUND. It didn’t matter how much the father loved that boy. It didn’t matter how much the father graciously tried to do for him. In fact, I can only imagine that had the father gone out and tried to restore his son prior to that critical point where “he came to his senses” and personally repented, the father could have been functioning as an enabler of his son’s addiction to stupid, giving him a sloppy attitude toward the father’s grace, and making it easier for him to rebel again in the future. Before his true restoration could happen, “he came to his senses.” I believe that this “aha moment” allowed objective reasoning to prevail and conviction to set in, giving sharp clarity to what previously was blurred, he became enlightened to actually face the fact of his own detestable stupidity, and that he was worthy of NOTHING good. He reasoned that “father’s flunkies fared far fancier and flew forthwith back to his father’s farm fields” (See below for a fuller version of the story in “F.”)—for if his father would allow it, he would be content to serve as the least of one of his father’s slaves. He now saw things clearly—he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. A decision was made to abandon the pig pen of his willful self-centeredness at any cost and return to his father. The whole scene is a dramatic demonstration of the Biblical principle expressed by James—“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10). Sure enough—the son did the humbling and the father did the lifting.

Please pay careful attention to the lessons to be gleaned from this highly significant story. Of course you want to avoid any kind of rebellion to the known will of God. Except for the positive example of coming “to his senses” and humbling himself and repenting, the wayward son is the picture of a Biblical fool. But neither do we want to give place to the arrogant self-righteousness demonstrated by the older brother who could only resent and condemn his younger brother. While he had the appearance of remaining faithful, he was clearly out of synch with the heart of the father. That which made the father rejoice actually made the older son angry. Hmmm. Please treat his example as a personal warning.