For many years I was taught and also studied myself the recorded events of a father and his two sons who had an entanglement with an inheritance, but I never asked myself, what does the term prodigal mean?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a prodigal as one who spends or gives lavishly and foolishly or one who has returned after a long absence. I honestly thought the prodigal son was exclusive to the one mentioned in Luke 15:11-32 because it`s all I knew about anything that has to with prodigal.
The protagonist in this story is the younger of two brothers and their father is some sort of a modern version tenderpreneur as they seemed to be of a higher than average income family. He thought of seeking a new challenge in life, one that would be away from the family estate, little did he know that he was on the precipice of his ultimate downfall. He gained enough courage to come up to his father and demanded his inheritance from him, whilst he was still alive. After his father agreed to his request, he then went full prodigal, in a far away country where he felt like he would live his life free, doing whatever he wanted at whatever time he wanted it to happen.
Much like many people who stumble upon instant riches like those who win the lotto, he blew it. In the version I read it in, he was recorded as a person who lived wildly and like many things good and pertaining instant riches it came to an end, his money ran out and he fell down to earth, came back to his senses and he looked for a job. His job seeking era was not aided by the economic crisis (famine) that hit the area where he was staying at that time, life was tough and literally begged a local farmer to hire him but because the economy had been shaken to the core, jobs were hard to come by so he had to settle for the position of being pig feeder.
Even though he had to resort to dining with the swine, he still remembered that his father has everything he would need in life, he knew he had to gather up the same courage as he did when demanding his inheritance from his father.
Things all over our country are tough, people are losing their jobs, livelihoods have been affected, unlike the prodigal guy in this story, many didn’t choose to be in the situation people are currently experiencing. However, there are some who because of unwise and rash decisions they have found themselves in a predicament that seems to have no way out, one may have done things according to their will for too many times which has led to a severing of the relationship between you and God.
Personally, I have been in the prodigal`s son situation more than once in one way or the other, but like him I always knew that I have a friend (JESUS) he eagerly anticipating me to come back to his arms with no question asked or I told you so`s. The father of the two son`s in the story was always praying in hope that he would come back home, that is why when he eventually went home, he didn’t bother discussing issues of where he was and why he did what he did, he quickly got servants to clean him up and threw a feast in his honour.
No matter the situation we find ourselves in, Jesus is always ready and waiting to place us back to where we once were and more, all we need to do is go back to him, he is ready and waiting for us, he doesn’t care what people will say he just wants us to come back to him. We must now therefore no longer procrastinate or delay it any further, let us run back to him NOW!
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