An excerpt from the ‘Parable of the Lost Son’: 

Luke 15:16-24 He was so hungry he would have eaten the corn-cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. That brought him to his senses. He said, “All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.” He got right up and went home to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech… But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, “Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet… We’re going to feast!… My son is here – given up for dead and now alive! Lost and now found!

My thoughts this morning settled on the earlier part of this story – the fact that the servants or farmhands were all provided with three square meals a day from the father… and that is all the son was going home expecting, desiring, or even hoping for.

I find it fascinating that if I were to lose everything – food would be the first tangible that I would seek, and if I were able to quench my hunger, I would immediately store up for tomorrow’s looming hunger – and once I had sufficient food stored up, I would then store up whatever I deemed the next most important thing… probably clothes and blankets… and once I had sufficient warmth, it would be the next thing… you get the picture. The part I find fascinating is that when we have little, we desire little… but if we are given much, we desire much. When the son had everything that he could imagine, he took his inheritance and went off seeking more and losing everything and yet when he had nothing, he just wanted his father to provide for him a basic need; he was no longer seeking the excess.

Now, the part that really got me thinking was how God has proven that he will daily provide for us – hence the raining manna from heaven… daily. And Jesus has stated and proven this to be true as well with the feeding of the 5,000 as just one example. Not only is He, the Creator of All Good Things, able, but He is also willing to feed His children and tend to their basic needs… and in the parable, Jesus tells us that not only are we forgiven and the Father will provide for our basic needs, but He desires to provide abundantly. This parable has a very happy ending. But! This parable also teaches us that if we are given too much too soon – it can destroy us… causing us to turn away from the Father – in our self-determination and focus, leaving us with nothing. Because if we don’t have God, who is Life, we truly have nothing. 

As a parent, this is quite the pickle. Just like our Heavenly Father, we desire to give our children gifts and yet the less they have, the more content they are. The less I have, the more content I am… Less is more… in every sense of the word – the less we have the more room we have for Him who is Life.