Where are you from, not where are you living, or even went to school, where
are you from? What is your home town, where did you grow up? Where did you
live when going to high school? Before you took off for college, the service,
or to find life? Or is it the town you never left, going to work for your dad,
and always wondering what is was like wandering? When asked do you look back
fondly, or try to go on to the next question? Or if they know the area, do you
ask remember Snuffy’s, Bowcraft, and working at Sears? You try to identify with
them, and no matter why you left, or they stayed, it seems you only reflect on
the good times. For me it was Scotch Plains, the only city by that name in the
US of A, and when I hear the name, or see it in print, I stop, look, and
listen. Even though it was almost 40 years ago I left on my motorcycle and
headed west, Scotch Plains is still my hometown. And as I get older, I remember
the good times more than I do the hot and humid summers, the lousy winters, and
think that maybe it wasn’t such a bad place to grow up. I hated high school,
but hearing from Cheryl telling me about our friends in high school takes me
back, but I don’t visit for very long. My life began the day I left, as I knew
New Jersey held nothing for me, that my future was elsewhere, the road and the
Lord were calling. So when talking with others like me who left their home
towns for a brighter future, and we all wax nostalgic, I wonder, why did we ever
leave home if there is no place like it? What were we thinking, should we have
listened to our friends who stayed behind, telling us “everywhere is like here,
why would you want to leave?” And so my visits back remind me of why I left,
and why I look back fondly.
Some still think of me as the prodigal, and wait for me to return to
Jersey-it ain’t happening. But like the prodigal, I took my parent’s blessing
and set out on my own, my own being New Mexico. But unlike the prodigal son, by
the way the word prodigal means useless, I had a vision, a reason, and a desire
to see the open road, and where God would take me. I never felt useless, maybe
I would have if I had stayed, but almost 40 years later I can understand why the
younger son left, and maybe why his brother stayed. And why some grow in God,
while others flounder, never finding their way. You see the son who stayed
home, who was jealous of his brother, even in failure, the one who thought his
father should not welcome him back, was really the prodigal. He was really the
useless brother, never taking advantage of what his father had to offer. He
became bitter, even to his father, and wanted more, he felt he should have it
all. Why you gave the younger one his inheritance, and he squandered it,
where’s mine? He never saw the love his father had for both his sons, enough
love to let them succeed or fail on their own, his blessing equal to both. And
in his bitterness he missed out, missed out on what life had to offer him. And
dreaded the day his brother might return, and becoming more miserable when he
did. Ever fell that way?
Yet Jesus loves us both in failure and success. In sin and in
righteousness, something I struggled with for years. Why would Jesus love me as
a sinner? Then John 3:16 made sense, while we were yet sinners, He died for
us. He was showing us the love of the Father, our Father in heaven, and like He
promised, He would never leave us nor forsake us. Every mile travelled, every
new address, Jesus was there and is there. But yet He encourages you to get
out, to trust Him, and see what life is all about, yet some doubt and miss the
blessings. So why do some stay home miserable, while others are out and
blessed? Maybe it comes down to trust, trust like Abraham had, who never owned
a home, although he as the father of all its inhabitants. Who had to buy land
just to bury his wife. Who not only wandered, but wondered about God, and
trusted Him to fulfill His word. A trust starting in faith, listening, then
doing. Sometimes out of obedience, sometimes from training, but he acted.
Finally when he knew God well enough, he just acted in trust, way beyond faith,
for he had seen and heard God, where do we stand in that sentence? Still
failing in faith, He gives us all the same amount? Maybe we fail in obedience,
and never get to the trust part of knowing God. And maybe that keeps us from
blessings, and also blessing others. For when life becomes all about me,
trusting only ourselves, we fail. We never see the horizon, we never get the
chance to set out and have a father to return to-we become the truly prodigal
one.
For the so-called prodigal, he found there was no place like home. The
true prodigal found out there was no place like home too, because he never left,
he never got to see. In Jesus is the only way we ever get to truly see how God
is. It takes a trip of faith, of getting out and even if we fail, He is there
to pick us up. It is not too late to answer the call, to turn to Christ now, to
shed your veil of being a prodigal. Some seek and never find, some stay home
and never seek. Although Jesus was born a Nazarene in Bethlehem, and lived in
Jerusalem, He spent His life out on the road. To some it would appear useless,
to those who know Him we know why He sought the prodigals. They are everywhere,
and He sought us all out. And in Him we find out why we really leave home, when
there is no place like it, as He left heaven to call us home. Now...we look
forward to our heavenly home He has prepared for us. Staying home and feeling
secure in your beliefs, or reaching out in faith in Jesus, risking failure to
find peace in Him? Consider the son who never left, the real failure, the real
prodigal. The rest of us went out, failed, and found life in Christ. We found
out that there truly is no place like home when we can call heaven our new
home. Be it ever so humble...and Jesus is. He caused me to stop, look, and
listen to Him. Where is He leading you? Where will you call home forever?
Scotch Plains wasn’t such a bad place to grow up...but I knew there was more.
Welcome prodigals, He has been waiting.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com