The Prodigal Son — Return Is Always Possible

He spent everything. He ended up feeding pigs in a foreign country, hungry enough to want what the pigs were eating. 'When he came to his senses, he said: I will go back to my father' (Luke 15:17-18). The parable's pivot is not the return speech but what happens before it: 'while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him' (Luke 15:20). The father was watching. The father ran. The robe, the ring, the fatted calf — before the speech was finished. Isaiah heard the same promise a thousand years earlier: 'Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them... he will freely pardon' (Isaiah 55:7). God to Israel, Jesus in parable, the father on the road — the same motion. Return is always possible. The door is not just unlocked. Someone is watching for you to appear on the road.