Last week, I wrote about the joy that we experience during the Advent season. That joy, of course, is what I hope all of us get to experience this Christmas.

However, I know that the Christmas season also carries with it much pain and sadness for many people. There are feelings of loss, loneliness, and pain. The feelings of loss can be due to a loved one that has passed away over the past year(s). Loneliness comes from that feeling that many will face this Christmas because–due to circumstances or choice–family and friends just won’t be seen this year.

Then we have the feelings of pain that many will carry with them this Christmas. The type of pain I am talking about here is the pain that comes because we know that some of our family and/or friends are lost right now. In my head I am imagining the Prodigal Son’s (Luke 15:11-32) father. Now, I know this was a parable, but like all of Jesus’ parables they not only reflect how God relates to us, they also reflect real human emotions and reactions. Think of the loss that the father must have been feeling in this parable. His younger son had left in one of the most disrespectful ways possible in their culture. He had basically told his father, “I wish you were dead so I could just get my inheritance now.” The father probably spent many hours and days waiting and worrying about when–or if–his son would ever come home again. Think of the time he would have spent praying for his son to come back to his senses.

Who are the prodigals in your life? Who are those lost loved ones that you so desperately pray would come to their senses and return home–figuratively, if not literally? For whatever reason, these people seem to come to my mind even more during the Christmas season.

Now, I do want to leave you with good news! In the parable, the son does come back! Then the ball is in our court! How will we treat those returning prodigals in your life? Will we hold up our arms and stop them and say, “You blew it, son! You had your chance and you blew it. Don’t come back here asking for a second chance.” Or, will we welcome the prodigals in our life like the father in the parable who runs out to meet him when he sees him and hugs him and accepts his son back into the family, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found,” (verse 24).

Let’s pray for the prodigals in our lives this Christmas season. Let’s pray that they would ‘come home’ and that we would accept them as our Heavenly Father accepts us.

More to come…
Jeremy