Ems Hancock

Coming home

Home for me has always been a place of welcome and fun. Often noisy and full of activity, my childhood home was a constant stream of people. I loved being part of such a busy family. Coming home for me now is much the same. Whenever I walk through the door, there is a sense of celebration. I am home! But it is nothing like the party that Father God has when one of his children returns home to Him.

In the second part of the Bible, there is a book called Luke. In the 15th chapter, Luke recounts Jesus telling the story of 'The Lost Son'. Refusing to wait until his father had died, this son demands his share of the inheritance money he is due and promptly leaves home. Actions that would have hurt and shamed his whole family.

He wastes the money and is left with nothing. Eventually, coming to his senses, the son realises that he would be better to return to the family home and ask his father to take him in as a servant, realising he no longer deserves to be called a son.

Meanwhile the father is watching and waiting. He paces the road; He asks merchants if they have seen his son; He counts the days, hoping and praying... another day, another candle snuffed out... and still no sign. Then we read, "...while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him."

Instead of punishing him for his foolish behaviour, or greeting him with phrases such as, "What time do you call this?" or "Have you any idea what you have put me through?" Luke says that the father was, "filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

Instead of humiliating the son for the shame he cast on him within the entire community, the father humiliates himself by running to meet him. Such behaviour was more than degrading according to the Jewish standards and customs of the time. But the Father breaks with all tradition. He does not care what others think.

When the son has recited just half of his prepared speech, acknowledging he had wronged his father, he is interrupted. The father commands the servants to bring the son the best robe, to put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, to slaughter the fattened calf and to prepare a feast to celebrate his return. He has clearly thought about these preparations in advance! They tumble out of his mouth.

What he asks for are not just symbols of his joy, but speak of full forgiveness and restoration of the son to his prior status - as child of his father. As he put the robe on, his son would have understood this as a symbol of great distinction; the ring as the sign of family authority; the sandals a luxury and sign of sonship (as slaves were barefooted). Even the slaughter of the fattened calf is highly significant. It would have been more usual for a lamb to be used for a party. But the son had offended not only the family, but the entire community. The father throws a party big enough to invite everyone to join in the restoration and celebration. Instead of becoming a hired servant as he expected, the son is fully restored to the position he abandoned long before, in front of everyone he wronged. He is no longer lost but found. He is a son again.

The day I got engaged I couldn't stop looking at my hand. I had a beautiful ring on that had been designed and made especially for me. I never felt more loved, or more chosen. I imagine the son at this party, smiling at all his relatives and friends and occasionally glancing down at the ring on his finger, in disbelief that he has been so accepted.

Perhaps you identify in some way with the son in this story. You have tried to find happiness and fulfillment in a place far away from relationship with Father God. Maybe you once felt as though you had some kind of family tie with Him, but that feeling has long since gone. Perhaps someone who professed to know God let you down or hurt you.

Whatever your present or your past circumstances, it is never too late to return. Your Father (for that is what He will always be, whether you acknowledge that or not) watches and waits for you. But unlike the father in the story, Father God knows where you are right now and if and when you will come home. He knows the day, the hour and the minute you will reach for His hand. He knows the size of your hand, and the size of the ring awaiting you.

Be assured that if you start out on that journey, you will find not accusation and demands from Him, but assurances of love and true acceptance. You will find a daddy who loves you totally without condition.

I pray that this album will be a light on the road back to your family and that you will delight your Father's heart today by 'Coming Home'.

Ems