A Great Way Off

Maybe there is a speech in your head that you have been working on for a while. You know how it starts, and you have found the humblest way to put the middle. The last line offers to take less than you were given, because asking for less feels safer than coming home with nothing.

The younger son in Jesus' story had a speech like that. He worked it out word for word while he was feeding pigs: "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." It has three parts. First he confesses, then he says he does not deserve to be called a son, and then he offers to come back on lower terms.

He only gets two of the three parts out. "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." The father saw him first, and that means he had been watching the road. Then the son begins: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." The line about the hired servant never comes out, because his father has already turned to the servants and is calling for "the best robe."

So the distance was closed from the father's end while the son was still going over his words. The part of your own speech that asks to be made hired help is the part you will never need to say. Your Father settled what you are called before you were close enough to hear Him. Jesus told this story to men who were muttering, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." The father's running was meant for them as well, and it is meant for you. God is still watching the road, and He still runs to meet the ones who come home.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 256 is The Gentle Shepherd (Isaiah 40:11).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two