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“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.” (Luke 15:20-24 KJV)

Would it be fair to take a look at the notion that perhaps the prodigal son’s mistakes made him a little wiser than the son that stayed with his father? The son who did what he was supposed to do seemed pretty perfect for the most part. He seemed like a guy who did what his dad said and learned all that he was supposed to learn in order to manage what his father would one day give to him and his brother.

The prodigal son on the other hand seemed to be a wild card. He may have saw what he needed to learn in order to be successful from his father, but that was not enough. He needed experience. Some people learn lessons by touching a hot stove and getting burned although they were told beforehand the stove was hot.

The prodigal son was a mistake maker, but he learned a valuable lesson because of his mistakes. He learned how to manage money and how to consider the wisdom of others apart from his own wisdom concerning life. He was able to go back and tell other people just like him, what not to do.

The prodigal son become a mature man and a better son because life was his teacher. In some cases, God will use life to teach us lessons. Some of us are hard headed. We want to know why nobody told us how hard certain situations would be; But the question then becomes, would we really have listened, and did we refuse to hear when people did warn us about things?

Like the prodigal son’s father, God loves us and is happy to see us when we return back to Him after following our path. He allows us to make mistakes, even after He has warned us before we even made the mistake and He uses the lessons that we have learned to help others.

“Even, if you’ve made a mistake, God can still accomplish his purpose for your life; because His purpose is for you to become more like Christ” (Tony Stoltzfus).

Mistakes don’t define our destiny but pride sure can fight against it. It would have been a terrible thing for the prodigal son to be prideful once he remembered who his father was. He could have remained eating with the pigs and he could have felt as if he was too far gone to return home, but he must have known his father better than that.

Do you know your Father better than that? Do you know that you are not so far gone that He won’t accept you into His arms when you return back to Him? God can use everything that you consider to be junk. In fact, heaven throws a party when you return back home to your Father. There is rejoicing over you (Luke 15:7; Luke 15:10). Jesus is excited and waiting at the gate to welcome you back home because He is the redeemer who always spoke well of you in your absence.

You are not a bad person. God knows what you did and who you did it with and He still considers you to be valuable. You’re not tarnished and beyond repair. You are the child of a King and you have a robe to put on and a ring waiting to be placed on your finger. In the name of Jesus, I pray that you receive the words of Jesus Christ as He opens the gate to greet you today. I pray that you receive the words “welcome back” and that you know that you were never locked out. In Jesus name, Amen

Lord, I pray over the lives of your people. I pray that they know that they can return to you with dirty cloths, smeared make -up, and still know that you will not turn them away. I pray that they don’t allow life to destroy the person that you have called them become and I pray that they know that the cross was them too. In Jesus name, Amen.

*Jesus would never leave you out, child of God. You’re not an orphan who does not have a father. God looks past your mistakes, I pray that you will look past your mistakes also. There was an instance in which Peter was specifically invited to a location to see Jesus after he had risen. The angel gave instructions to tell the disciples and peter about where Jesus was headed. Peter was not excluded from grace or from the love of God because of his mistakes. You are the “and tell Peter to” (Mark: 16:5-7).

Peter needed to know that he was not excluded because of what he had done, in fact Jesus even had a meeting with him before he went back to heaven (John 21:15-19).

You are not excluded from Grace or from the love of God. You are loved and will always be greeted by Him with open arms.

Recommended Reading: Luke 15

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