Wednesday, April 29, 2026

“And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20, New Living Translation)

                “Can you think of a positive, caring person in your life who might help you out?”

                This question is leading a youth shelter in St. Catharines to help homeless and/or addicted youth, often with mental health issues as well, to do more than just hunker down at the shelter. It is opening doors (almost literally) so that these lost youth break the cycle of their life-shattering difficulties.

The article illustrates what happened with one youth. The case manager asked this young man if there was a caring, positive person in his life who might help him out. It turns out that he thought of his father and gave the case worker permission to get in touch with him. The father said he didn’t know whether his son was dead or alive. “But I want him home.” The young man, with promises that he would take and stay on his medication, went to live with his father that very day. The story reports that now, a few years later, the son is still living at home and doing well.

This has the Parable of the Prodigal Son written all over it.  The Prodigal’s story is very contemporary in many ways. A young man leaves home and falls into a harmful, wasteful life-style. He is broke, homeless, hungry, far away from home, living poorly off the streets, snatching food where he can even if it is only fit for pigs.

Then a remarkable thing began to take place. He came to his senses. There was a rare moment of clarity and self-awareness, that his life was a living hell. That is when he thought of home and more importantly, he remembered his father, a positive, caring person in his life who might just help him out. In hopeful  contrition and humility, he seeks to return home, unsure what his father would say or do. But we learn that the father has been watching the road all the while, waiting, hoping, longing, “But I want him home,” we might hear him saying to people who are asking him why bother, why waste his time.  The father sees his son and picking up the hem of his robe so he could ruin more easily, sandals flapping on the dirt road, the father rushes up to his son and embraces him and welcomes him home gladly and throws a party to celebrate his return, “for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.” (15: 24)

It is this story which reverberates through the youth shelter’s story.

Both stories remind us how critical it is to have someone in our corner, someone who loves us unconditionally, someone who has our well-being at heart, someone who forgives and forgets. Robert Frost said it well: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” But it is more than an obligation, a duty or a burden. It is the free, gracious, unreserved response of someone who sees through the pig slop and throws their arms around us.

The parable invites us to see God in that way, as our heavenly Father, Abba,  who is eager to welcome us back into his loving arms, no matter what. God forgives, pardons, saves and is eager to bless our reunions with him. “Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms.” (Psalm 68:19) God does not forget us, nor abandon us to our messes, nor shun us when we go bad, nor give up hope for us, “for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” (1 Chronicles 28:20)

Both stories also remind us that there may be people in our lives who seem lost to us, friends or family, ones who have fallen by the wayside of our influence and love. Are we prepared to be patient with them, welcoming them back, forgiving them, being open-armed, open-hearted and unfalteringly be a beacon of hope and light for them?

Both stories also remind us that if we are the ones who ever need love, care, and a positive influence, we who are on the outside looking hungrily around for acceptance and inclusion, that we look for those positive influences who see beyond our faults, weaknesses, and mistakes and help us return to family, fellowship and community.

            Come home, come home
            You who are weary, come home
            Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling
            Calling, O sinner, come home.

 Prayer:

Ou loving heavenly Father, help us to seek your Presence no matter how far we ourselves have lost our way. We pray for those who have fallen and can’t get up that you bring them to their senses so that they will run back into your ever-open arms. Help us to be as forgiving and open-hearted with others as you are with us.  Thank you for a Love that has our welfare and well-being at the very core of y9our Grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.