For the father who watches the road and cannot make the feet turn home.
He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat, and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
The waiting has its own particular ache, and you know it well: the empty chair, the phone that doesn't ring, the urge to send one more message or to demand an explanation. You have learned to stand at the edge of the road without walking down it, and that restraint has cost you more than you say aloud.
Jesus gives you a father who is already there. The son is still far off, still smelling of pigs and hunger, still rehearsing a speech about hired servants, and the father sees him. Not because the father happened to glance up, but because he had been looking. The road was watched. The horizon was held in his gaze through every season of silence. And when he sees, he does not wait for the apology to be finished; he runs, and falls on his neck, and kisses him. The waiting and the running are the same love.
Jesus tells you this so you will know what the Father is like. The Father who ran to the prodigal is the same Father who raised Jesus from the dead, and his compassion moves before any confession is complete. Your watching cannot bring your son home, but it is not wasted. You are not the one who must hold the road in place; you are the one who is held.
The waiting and the running are the same love.
Father, you see what I cannot. I release my son into your steady gaze. Keep my hands open and my heart watching, and let your compassion be enough for both of us.
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