Shalom, Shalom,
As I was thinking of the contents of the sharing for this week, I was reminded of yet another Sunday school song. Indeed I believe a number of us do know this song.

Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong,
They are blessed for He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so.

It is a very simple song and yet it speaks volume about the Father's love. In fact Jesus Himself gave us an idea of the depth of the Father's love in Luke 15: 11 - 32.

11 Then He said, "A certain man had two sons.

12 And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood.

13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,

19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."

20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

21 And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son."

22 But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;

24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.

25 Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

27 And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf."

28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

29 So he answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.

30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him."

31 And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.

32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and
is alive again, and was lost and is found."

The younger son kind of reminds some of us of ourselves once. He wanted some of the family inheritance; cannot wait until the "old man" dies but wanted the cash now and fast. And then, when the money got into his hands, what did he do with it? Squandered it all away, every penny, and every cent. Eventually he had to learn that fair-weathered friends come aplenty - here today and gone tomorrow.

He had no regards for his father's feelings. Do you know that in middle-eastern as well as our Asian cultures, it is not right to ask for your share of the inheritance until after the death of the benefactor? Oh no, he could not care less; all he wanted was a good time.
Now at the end when his money ran out and there was a famine, a recession in the land where he had gone to, the younger son could not feed himself. He had no more money and there were no jobs available that could pay him a reasonable salary for his upkeep. Out of desperation, he decided that he would be a pig farm hand. Every day he would feed the pigs with all those high-grade corn mixed with extra proteins and stirred in a special liquid so that the pork would be nice, juicy and tender and the produce would be more and faster because of the force-feeding.

As he stood there feeding the pigs with all those "super-food" the swine-feed looked real good to him especially when he was hungry himself. He was tempted to steal some of the food for himself and then it dawned on him. Why not go home and become one of his own father's hired servants? At least he need not be hungry because he knows his father is a generous employer. So a plan was hatched. He would go home, seek his father's forgiveness and then offer to work for his father in his huge house. Every day he would rehearse the lines until he could say it without a hitch.

So the young man plucked up courage and embarked on his journey home. As he neared the house, while he was still quite a distance off, the father saw him in the horizon and out of excitement and sheer joy, he ran out of the house to greet his son with affection. He embraced the son. Now here we have to take note of a couple of exceptional actions by the father.

§ In Middle-Eastern culture, the older person would not run to meet the younger; it is usually the other way around.

§ Jesus told this story to the Jews and obviously, the father was a Jew in this context. And being a Jew, it is a taboo to go near pigs and swine, leave alone to embrace one who smelled like a pig (the son worked among the pigs for a while before he came to his senses and he was too poor to even have a change of clothes).

§ It is customary for the people in Middle-East to wear long robes to keep the heat out and, to facilitate running, the father must have lifted the hem of his long robe and thereby exposed his legs - something which a rich man would not do.
As soon as the father saw the young man, he did not allow him to say too much. So happy was the old man that he immediately gave instructions for his servants to bring out the best for his son. The father restored to the young man everything that the son of a rich man would be entitled to, including the ring of authority - the signet ring that says, this is the one who has the authority of the father, even the authority to execute the father's business.
The young man could not even complete his well-rehearsed speech. He could only complete up to the part where he admitted wrongdoing; the second half about being a hired servant was never uttered because the father interrupted him. You see, God creates all of us as His own and He longs to treat each of us as His children. However, not everyone realizes the depth of God's love. And God's love is unearned favor. Just as the young man did not deserve to come back, the father took the first step and not only forgave his son but restored everything to him.

God the Father looks over the horizon and longs to see the silhouette of his children coming home and then He will rush out to embrace us and lavish us with His bountiful gifts. The position of sonship is a gift; it cannot be earned but is a free gift from God. The Father is still waiting for some of us to come home. He has a whole treasure house of gifts with our names written on them waiting for the rightful owner to claim them. Are you coming home? Have you been to the treasure house and started opening those gift-packs? How do you like your gifts?
And now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen.
Shalom.

Best regards,
Andrew L W Lee

Dated : 4 November 2001