Hard to Wait

“While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.” —Luke 15:20

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories about lost things. There’s one about a coin misplaced in a house and a woman who vigorously swept the floor until it was found. Then there’s one about a sheep that wandered off, and the shepherd was compelled to go searching. But the lost thing in the third story was far more precious than copper currency or a curious lamb could ever be. Unlike the coin or the sheep, the son in the story made a conscious decision to break his father’s heart.

As far as we know, the father of the lost boy didn’t go on a desperate search for his lost treasure. He didn’t gather a posse to bring his son home. Instead, he did the one thing that can be the hardest thing to do in such a situation. He waited. The heartbroken dad in Jesus’ parable patiently waited for God to write his own story as well as that of his hardhearted, rebellious, but nonetheless dearly loved offspring.