Guy Duininck: You Can Always Come Home
Something powerful to note from the parable of the prodigal son is that when the prodigal son returned to his father’s house, there was no barrier erected on the father’s property to prohibit his return. There was no wall built to keep him out. There was no fence with servants posted all around to prohibit him from entering his father’s estate. The prodigal son had not been rejected, disowned, or deemed persona non grata by the father.
In fact, just the opposite was true. The father, who had been hopefully watching for his son’s return, ran eagerly to embrace his son when he saw him coming. He put a new robe on his back, a ring on his finger, and declared a time for celebration. There was no resistance to the return of the dirt-stained son because of his sin. There was no restriction erected by the father to prohibit the son from coming home. In fact, the father deeply desired that his son would come home, was hopefully watching for him every day, and welcomed him with arms wide open when he arrived.
