LOST: PARABLE OF THE FATHER’S HEART

Several years ago, my family and I attended a conference on a university campus. One afternoon our 4-year-old went missing from the student center where I worked. As it became apparent that my little girl was lost, my heart sank, and with each passing moment, I began to feel more and more nauseous. Words cannot describe the depth of anguish and despair I felt that day. With the help of university police, we frantically searched all four floors of that building, eventually spilling out into the parking lot and covering the four city blocks of the campus. She was completely lost.

In Luke 15, we read Jesus’ three parables about lost things—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. Contextually, however, the emphases lay not on the things lost but on those to whom the lost things belonged—the shepherd, the woman, the father. The third parable is frequently called the Parable of the Prodigal Son—but as G. Campbell Morgan suggested, perhaps a better name would be the title he chose for his book, The Parable of the Father’s Heart. In this story, we see the broken heart of God revealed. This father was actively watching, waiting, and yearning to be reunited with his lost child. That is exactly how God feels about each of His children who are lost and separated from Him.

Morgan wrote in The Great Physician: “It is well now to remind ourselves that when we speak of a lost man or woman, the final emphasis in our thinking should not be on the lost person, but on the one who has lost that person. When we speak of a man being lost, do we think most about his suffering, or of the suffering of God?” When the devil has kidnapped a child of God, God hurts the deepest, who suffers most. His heart is broken as He can foresee the inevitable consequence of a lost relationship—eternal separation.

In 2 Samuel 23, we read about three of David’s mighty men who heard a sigh from their king’s lips—his simple longing for a drink of water from the well near the gate at Bethlehem. Risking their own lives, they crossed enemy lines in the dark of night and retrieved the drink of water for their king. It is clear that these three men were close enough to their king, in proximity but more importantly in relational intimacy, to hear the longing of his heart. They were never given a command. Their king’s longing became their immediate, voluntary, and dangerous mission.

After the longest hour of my life, we found our daughter. When I saw her, I instantly understood the joy in heaven that erupts when a lost person is reunited with the Father. I cried out with happiness and could not stop hugging her. The intensity of the darkness accompanying her loss was matched only by the elation I felt when I held her in my arms again.

LIVE DEAD CHALLENGE

Today as you pray, rather than pouring out your heart to God, ask Him to pour His heart to you. Our King is a wonderful and loving Father who suffers deeply at the loss of His children. If we love Him, we will listen. Eventually, we will feel His broken heart. If we love Him, we will, like the mighty men of old, make His longing our mission no matter the risk. What is the cry of God’s heart? He is weeping over His lost children, watching, waiting, and yearning for them to come home.

UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP: TIGRE

The Tigre are Muslim nomadic people who inhabit the northern, western, and coastal lowlands of Eritrea and areas in eastern Sudan. Most of them belong to Sunni Islam. Every time you see a symbol of restricted freedom, a jail, a chain, handcuffs, or read about slavery, pray for a people—now serfs to both Islam and other tribes—that they may become sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father.