"The Return of The Prodigal Son"

"... God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. Nothing between us and God, our faces shinning with the brightness of his face. And so we are transformed much like the Messiah, our lives becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."

The Message, 2 Corinthians 3: 16ff

 

 Henri Nouwen, in his book, "The Return of The Prodigal Son", says, "If the only meaning of the story (Luke 15, The Prodigal Son) were that people sin but God forgives, I could easily begin to think of my sins as a fine occasion for God to show me forgiveness. There would be no challenge is such an interpretation. 

I would resign myself to my weaknesses and keep hoping that eventually God would close his eyes to them and let me come home, whatever I did. Such romanticism is not the message of the Gospels. "What I am called to make true is that whether I am the younger or elder son, I am the son of my compassionate Father. 

I am an heir. . . . as son and heir I am to become  successor. I am destined to step into my Father's place and offer to others the same compassionthat he has offered me. 

The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to become the Father. . . .

"I know how much I long to return and be held safe, but do I really want to be son and heir with all that that implies? Being in the Father's house requires that I make the Father's life my own and become transformed in his image."