God Waiting

 August 31, 2022

Evangelists love the story of the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep, risking the rest of the flock to bring home the wanderer. They love the image of a God who loves us so much he goes to any length to seek us out and bring us home. 

They also love the story of the Prodigal Son who wasted his inheritance on wild living in a foreign country, ending up feeding pigs and so hungry he wished he could sample the slop he was pouring into the trough. He finally came to his senses and went home, where he found his father waiting for him at the front gate, ready to throw a big celebration party for his son who “was lost and now is found.”

Both stories reveal something about the God we Christians worship. The lesson of the lost sheep, that God loves us enough to seek us out is something we’ve been taught to understand almost from the beginning. The lesson of the Prodigal Son however, is easy to miss or misread.

We often find ourselves in messy and painful situations, sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes not. Either way, at such times, we often wonder why God doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to our prayers. We are desperate, confused, and afraid; if God doesn’t answer, we’re not going to make it. And silence is the only answer we get. “Wait! I thought God loved me! I thought he wanted to bless me!” Silence. “Where is the Good Shepherd who roams the countryside looking for that one lost sheep?” Silence.

At such times, we are living the story of the Lost Son, not the Lost Sheep. He was in such a life-threatening place that this Jewish boy was feeding pigs and wishing for just a taste of slop. Yet no one came looking for him. Why?

The key to this story is found in what Jesus said about him in his desperation: “When he came to himself…” Modern translations miss the point when they have Jesus saying “he came to his senses.” The old versions had it right, and Jesus was paying this boy a compliment. He wasn’t his true self when he was partying, squandering all that he had been given. And he wasn’t his true self when he was feeding the pigs. He was his true self when he realized he had a home and a father. Jesus wants us to know who we really are, but here’s the kicker: had the father come looking for his son, the boy would never have had the opportunity to come to himself. The father waited, and in so doing, gave his son a gift he could not have given any other way: the gift of him realizing who he really was…a beloved son.

Sometimes we have to go through the mess to learn who we really are. Only when we are tested do we discover our strength, and only when God waits patiently are we given the time we need to learn who we really are. God’s rushing to our rescue would short-circuit the process, and he loves us too much to let that happen. Knowing who I really am…a son loved by my Heavenly Father, isn’t something God can just lay on me. It is learned only in the far country—those times when I’m in a mess bad enough for me to remember home.