REFLECTIONS

In Search of Home

Journey back in time to those youthful days of wonder, peace, and pleasure. Acceptance ever present, provision freely given and with little responsibility for any of it. Home, we call it. Yet underneath a yearning burned for more control, independence, identity, vocation, meaning. Jesus tells a parable about such a restless young man. We know the story as The Prodigal Son.

The story of a boy struck by wanderlust has lived in us all during the adolescent time of our lives. It’s a time fraught with restless confusion, driven by visions of an ideal world free of pain and responsibility and a longing for freedom to build an independent life within it.

Yearning for control and independence confused Adam and Eve too. In the Garden they had a perfect home—perfect! Yet they fell to temptation because they wanted even more. We don’t usually think of the first two people on earth as youngsters. They were created full grown, but life was new for them just as life is new for adolescents today. Despite warnings from the Father, they chose to test life on their own. And they were banished from their home as the consequence of their decision.

Poor decisions teach great lessons. The Prodigal Son learned many of them from his early life escapades. He found himself alone, starving, and wallowing in pig slop before he felt the errors of his ways. Only then did he remember a place from his past with the peace he felt no more and without the love he once took for granted. To find it all again he went in search of home. There he found his waiting father’s open and loving arms to welcome his return.

Most of us spend a good part of our lives in search of the home we left behind. Whether the search is for the home we once knew, or the one we dreamed for, we travel through our earthly lives in search of love and peace there. Hard times teach us we can’t make our way alone. We find closed doors we cannot open, and open doors we cannot close. We need a Savior—a Savior to guide our path to a place called Home. And upon arrival, we find our Father’s open and loving arms to welcome our return.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.

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