The Day My Son Came Home

“So the young son set off for home. From a long distance away, his father saw him coming, dressed as a beggar, and great compassion swelled up in his heart for his son who was returning home. The father raced out to meet him, swept him up in his arms, hugged him dearly, and kissed him over and over with tender love.”  Luke 15:20 TPT

I’ve been gaining a deeper understanding of the Father’s love in this parable lately. Specifically in relation to what our prayers sound like while we are waiting. About two weeks ago, we experienced a moment so similar to Luke 15:20. Our middle son totaled his car by hitting a deer while driving at night and realized in the very moment of impact that God was speaking to him about the direction of his life. It always amazes me how clearly we can hear God when heaven and earth collide inside of us. Stranded in the midnight hours on a backroad, he told us he looked up at the stars and asked God what He was trying to show him. In that moment, his perspective was lifted upward and suddenly all obstacles were removed from the path that leads to home.

It would be a stretch to compare him to the prodigal son in all the ways he’s mentioned in the Bible, but in other ways, the shoe still fits. He was in college, out in the world, figuring out life and navigating relationships, work, and his journey with Jesus. Before that, he was living part-time in two very different households – one of which he begged to live in full-time, but was denied. Families who are divorced live out this parable day by day, in all its pain and glory.

This is the chasm where I find myself so much like the Father who watched for his son’s return. In the years leading up to his arrival, we have prayed all kinds of prayers. There have been tear soaked pillows in the night, shouts of joy in the morning, breathless phone calls where we scrambled in our hearts to discern from the Holy Spirit which way was the divine way out, times when the whole family stood in a hug and cried out on behalf of one another, clasped hands around the dinner table where the blessing lasted longer than the meal eating, prayers through text and postal mail, petitions that sent a holy rumble right through every room of the house, spirit prayers that conveyed every passion and volume of the Trinity, supplications and thanksgivings splashed in baptism waters, and quiet whispers of the heart that were gently carried on angel wings to the ear of God. And thousands more than even those.

So, when I read about this father who watched for the day he steadfastly longed for, I know it was much more than a hope. It was the faith that endures the sunrises and sunsets with a vacancy in the natural, but never considering it an emptiness in the spirit. It’s a faith that comes by prayer and by praying the word of God and the will of God over those we intercede for. Something happens to the soul of a person whose prayers strengthen their very life and call forth realities that are impossible by human reasoning. There’s an exchange when we let go of physical hope and cling tightly to Biblical faith. Our minds are renewed, which matures our thinking, and gives us access to God’s thoughts. And His thoughts position us to watch seas part, sickness healed, souls delivered, lives saved, and sons come home.

I wouldn’t know God like I know Him now without the prayers along the watch tower walls. I wouldn’t have the peace I have now without the faith that has reassured me a million times that God is who He says He is and He will do all that He has promised. When I saw my son in the car that was driving down the driveway to our house, I saw every word of every prayer written upon the heart of God. He heard me and He knew this day was coming. And it wasn’t just me watching this miracle happen from the window, but God was rushing toward him faster than I could. And when I held him in my arms and cried into his neck, the breath of God was sealing something eternal in my heart … that there is surely a reward for the one who watches the road home with God and lives in the celebration that everything that was lost will soon be found in Christ Jesus.