Being prodigal..

This will be the standard start to all my postings. For all of those who know me, I am the son of a teacher from a family of teachers. Please if you notice anything wrong about my grammar or punctuation, let me know before mummy sees it. Thanks.

For years, I had wrongly assumed that the prodigal son referred to in the Luke 15 was "Prodigal" because he left home and came back penniless "after returning to his senses". The story of a young man who asks for his inheritance, well in advance of his father's death always used to strike me with a mixture of horror, amazement and begrudging admiration. It just showed a young man who had what it takes to grab life by the horns, take advantage of his opportunities and make a mark on this world. Or did it?

The word "prodigal" is an adjective meaning "spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant". As a noun, it is used to describe "a person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way". So really, this young man could already have had a prodigal nature, but lacked the means to practice.

There is something wonderful about spending somebody else's money, whether it be MasterCard or Visa (I always have to remember that I am borrowing from them two!!!!), your parents, spouse etc. I have seen project managers splash the cash in ways they would not have dared had the money come from their own pockets. (How many times have we unofficially "borrowed" office supplies, used the printer, phone, internet etc with that wonderful justification,  'they do not pay me enough in this place....')

So young prodigal, (for the sake of simplicity, let us call him Sam), young Sam had a nature that needed a bit of cash to be unleashed to its full potential, even before he stepped out of his Papa's mansion. This realisation then led me to my next mis-assumption.

I always assumed that Sam made a decision to return home because he was broke and eating pig food. However v 14 (NKJV) states that, "When he had (a) spent all, (b) there arose a great famine in that land and  (c), he began to want." Verse 15 goes on to say "he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he (the citizen) sent (Sam, my man) into his fields to feed swine."  Verse 16 "And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything."

Sam would probably not have returned home if had not spent all his money; if there had not been a great famine; and if he had not begun to want. Hard economy means no jobs (sound familiar?). It is never said (or even implied) that he ate pig food, though he was sorely tempted. (When I am more rehabilitated than I currently am, I shall tell a story about this). The other important point for me was that noone gave him anything. Where were all his mates who helped him spend his fortune? (Sidebar. I am reminded of a story which could be urban myth, of a group of (illegal?) immigrants who were flat sharing. One of the flat mates dropped dead whilst she was cooking. Her colleagues called the ambulance and after the body was removed, they proceeded to tuck into the meal that their ex-flatmate had been cooking after a hard day's work. Well, I suppose life must go on. But I digress...)

So if someone had given him something (a loan, a gift), if he had got a better job (Senior Procurement Officer - Pig Division), and most important of all, if there had not been a severe famine, Sam might never have fashioned the reasonable plan in verses 17 to 19: "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare - there's nothing like hardship to remind you of how wasteful others can be - and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants'." Being broke is no joke.

I have become more sympathetic of Sam's plight now than when I was younger, possibly because I may have lived part of his dream. Isn't it wonderful though that as a Christian, God is willing to look beyond all that and without asking where I had been, what I had squandered his inheritance on and why I had decided to return home, showered me with His Grace, v 20 "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." How long had this old man been looking off into the distance, day after day, week after week, month after month? How did he recognise that presumably emaciated individual from afar off, who would have looked nothing like the well-fed young man in finery who left the family home ages before? Had he heard of the great famine in the neighbouring lands and therefore was expecting his son to return?

I thank God for His grace, mercy and favour.