Luke 15
What does “home” mean to you? It’s a word rich with memories, sensations, and emotions. Home is where life’s most profound moments occur—a place of laughter, authenticity, even conflict and reconciliation. Yet, home can also feel elusive, especially when we change locations. The opening scene of a movie says, “All of life is a coming home. Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, beekeepers, sword swallowers, all of us, all the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home.”
This longing for home echoes a biblical truth: our hearts seek a spiritual home with God, our Father. Saint Augustine reminds us that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We are spiritual exiles, longing for our true relationship with Him.
Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son illustrates this perfectly. Sin isn’t just about wrongdoing; it’s seeking fulfillment away from God. Before the prodigal wasted his father’s wealth on wild living, he positioned his heart away from his father. He asked his father to give him his inheritance early. Those words would have pierced his father’s heart. Only a son who wanted his father eradicated from his life would make such a request.
The father honors his son’s soul-crushing request. The prodigal squanders his father’s wealth. In trying to find himself outside his father’s home, he finds himself lost, miserable, and bankrupt. So, he decides to drag himself back home and beg his father to give him a job as a hired hand. Yet, when his father sees his tattered son from a distance, he runs to him. He embraces him, squeezing his son close to his chest. Then he throws a homecoming party, because this son who was lost has finally come home. This father reflects God’s unwavering loving grace toward all of his restless, wayward children. I invite you to read this parable yourself in the Bible (Luke 15).
This parable illustrates the grander story of the Bible. God gives Adam and Eve a perfect home. Adam and Eve decide to take what God gave them and try to find fulfillment outside of God’s will (Genesis 3). This action separates them from the Father. We ought not look down on them, because we all do the same (Romans 3:11). So, God, in his loving grace, pursues his children. He delivers Israel from slavery in Egypt to live with him in the freedom of the Promised Land. But, Israel distances herself from God. The nation turns to other gods and ends up in a foreign land away from God. God sends prophets to call them home. When they did not listen, he sends his very own Son (Luke 20). His Son left his home in heaven to bring God’s children home.
No matter how far we’ve strayed, God awaits, eager to welcome you back to him. Embrace the truth that Christ’s love always calls us home, no matter how far we have strayed.