Smelling Like Pigs

“He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said… ‘I will set out and go back...’ But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:16-20

We all have heard this story until it has become mechanical, numb to the powerful message for which is possesses. It is not a story that should highlight the selfish runaway since that character can be any of us on any given day. It is not the story of an embittered but justified older brother who consistently does the right thing with little notoriety. It is the story of a waiting father with arms wide open and passion for his wayward son in his heart. It is the story of unrelenting hope on the part of that father with a determination to never take his eyes off the horizon for his son’s return.

Many of us at some point have gathered our things and set out to find a better way searching for that illusive something that will fill our stomachs. Like the wayward son we find ourselves ‘smelling like pigs’ – empty, unfulfilled and hungry for what we once knew. We see ourselves for the depleted souls that we have become and cannot imagine our Father seeing us any differently. But He does…

In our story, the father never gave up scanning the horizon for his son’s return and neither will our Father. He constantly searches our circumstances and leaves spiritual bread crumbs to find our way back to Him. He knows that we cannot cover the distance on our own so like the father in our story, He makes up the distance running to us. He meets us halfway knowing our deficiencies carrying us part of the way back. When we are living in our distant country, our deepest place of brokenness, it is never beyond the scope of where our Father can restore us. Our brokenness is the point in time where the Father runs to us, picks us up and begins restoring our lives the way only a parent can. When we incline ourselves to the Father He will cover the ground we cannot do on our own.

As we come back to our Father with the heart of a beggar He will restore us to the position of a prince or princess.