The Prodigal

For five months the millionaire Harvey Cheyne Sr. and his wife Constance believed that their only son, Harvey Jr., who had been swept off the deck of a trans Atlantic ship on a trip to Europe, had perished in the ocean. They were still immersed in grief when the telegram in Harvey’s office began to click a message from the boy who had actually been picked up by a small fishing boat and was finally safely on land and waiting for instructions from his father.

This begins the climax of the story Captains Courageous,by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1897. The author was a master at detailing monumental moments in his character’s lives. The telegraph put into motion the parents’ journey from California to Massachusetts to re-unite with their son, and to witness the changes wrought in him by his five months on a working fishing boat.

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? I tell you he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:11)

In the novel Harvey junior had been “wandering away” for most of his young life. His rescue onto the fishing boat brought him into a life of hard work, discipline, and adventure for five months on the ocean. When the boat returned to land Harvey was a changed person. His father noted: “Someone’s been handling him”. . . Cheyne slapped his leg and chuckled. This was going to be a boy after his own hungry heart.”

The reunion of a father with his wandering son is the centerpiece of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. While both stories are centered on the son who leaves and returns, the hungry heart of the Father is extraordinarily blessed, by the return of the son. Jesus himself said, The son of man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) In describing the joy that is in heaven at the return of one of God’s own, Jesus is sharing the very heart of his Father with us. It isn’t just for our own advantage that we return to Him, but for the sheer joy of sharing fellowship with our God. The Prodigal’s father in Jesus’ story is personally, deeply gratified by his son’s return. Jesus tells us that this is true of his Father when one of Jesus’ brothers or sisters returns to the fold. When Jesus accepted the sins of the world on the cross, he “left” his Father for a moment in eternity, only to return for all of us. He is his Father’s son.

Love in Him,

Prue