"Welcome Home!"

He was at the end of his rope. He was disillusioned. His plans that once seemed so perfect were now only broken dreams. His friends had left him. He had disrespected his roots. He was now alone in a strange place and was struggling to survive.

This story is a story once told by the Savior of men. Many people can identify with it in a spiritual sense. We want to make our own decisions, and to find our own way. Sometimes the search for ourselves has caused us to abandon who we were raised to become. Then, with some distractions and failures we find ourselves so far away from home that we wonder if we can ever get back. We wonder if our lives will ever be fulfilled and special. The answer comes to us in the same way it came to man in this parable.

Luke 15 tells us that the prodigal son came to himself. He realized an essential truth always present in his life. It was the nature of his father. Even if in his own mind he felt like he deserved not to be forgiven, he knew that his father would take him back. This is the confidence that took him from doubt to determination, from heartbreak to home. "I will rise and go to my father.'

The prophet Isaiah reminds us, "All we like sheep have gone astray..." Although each of us have left our Father in our own way, God has called us all back in the same fashion. He made the ultimate sacrifice. He reinstated us fully. He rejoiced at our return.

Do you ever ask yourself, "Can I really go home again?" If you do, you are not alone. But our guilt is not as great as our God. Our grief is not as gripping as His grace for us. God not only wants us to come home, He is waiting for us, longing for us, and looking for us.

So today, if you are thinking of making a return, we humbly say in the name of our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ, "Welcome Home!"

"'It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.'" ~Luke 15:32