“And when he came to himself, he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” Luke 15:17 I read a devotion this week and this was the title. The words are attributed to a writer named John Burroughs and it struck a note with me. He also said that this homesickness became more pronounced with age and that is true. The text is the words attributed to the Prodigal Son. He had taken his inheritance and wasted it in a land of sin and pleasure. Yet when the pleasure ran out, he was still in the land of sin.
When Hebrews speaks of Moses it tells us: Hebrews 11:25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” Again, it is noted that even the Bible tells us that sin is pleasurable for a season. In the case of the Prodigal, it was limited by his money. In the world today there are several limits to the pleasure of sin. Some of the pleasure leads to the bondage of addiction. The sin then isn’t pleasure, it is an all consuming desire to remain supplied with the addictive substance.
The Prodigal was faced with a life of the lowest of lows. He, a Jew, was feeding swine. The Old Testament forbade even touching them, let alone eating their slop. How low did sin bring this young man? To the very bottom of his existence; to the gutter of his existence; as low as he could go. Feeding swine!
One day he “came to himself”. His eyes were opened. He was starving, his money was gone, all those who helped him spend it had other things to do. He could not impose on them until his financial situation corrected itself. He was in an uncaring world, a selfish world, a world of sin.
Then his soul began to remember better times, before the money was given to him, before moving into the world, before the pleasures of sin. He thought back to his childhood and never remembered a day when he didn’t eat until he was full. He never remembered a day when those around him he was treated with total disregard as he was now treated. The world of sin is not compassionate. It eats the soul of those caught in its web. He remembered the love of his father, the care of the servants, and even his brother.
He made a momentous decision. He was going home, he was returning with humility, but he was thinking of home the entire trip. He was homesick for the familiar that he had thought was boring while he was there. I imagine him looking back at the world of sin and looking forward to the house of his father. He had taken his inheritance. He had nothing there except memories of goodness.
He was willing to serve as a servant for his father treated the servants better than the world of sin had treated him. They had a good place to sleep. They had good food on their tables. The world of sin had him eating with the hogs.
Restoration came when he realized what he had and gave up for the sinful lifestyle he had desired to lead. He found that all Satan’s Apples have worms. He found out not all that glimmers is gold. His heart turned back to home as ours should look toward home.
Jesus said, “John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
That place is home, our final home for those of us who have asked the Savior into our hearts. Our soul should be getting a little homesick for heaven each day. As we read the Scriptures and see the goodness that dwells there. As we search the Scriptures and learn of the difference between good and evil, blessedness and wickedness, shouldn’t we, as we look around us at the fog of sin and degradation, shouldn’t we desire heaven a little more each day?
Brother, Sister, someday we will meet around the throne of God and sing praises together, talk over old times, and get to know new faces. It is a blessedness to look forward to, that is for sure.
