The TableSample

Robe, Ring, and Sandals

DEVOTIONAL

The Father restored him before he could even finish his apology.

You know the story. A son demands his inheritance early, which is as good as wishing his father dead, then squanders the lot in a far country. When the money and the friends are gone and he is feeding pigs and starving, he comes to his senses and heads home with a speech prepared. He will offer to come back as a hired servant, because surely he has forfeited any right to be a son.

But watch the father. While the boy is still a long way off, his father sees him, and is filled with compassion, and runs. In that culture a dignified man did not run, yet this father gathers up his robes and sprints down the road to reach his shameful son first. The boy starts his rehearsed speech, but he never gets to the part about being a servant. The father interrupts with three gifts. Quick, bring the best robe. Put a ring on his finger. Sandals on his feet. Then let us celebrate with a feast.

These were not random. The robe was honour, covering the rags of his shame. The ring was authority and belonging, the family signet restored to his hand. The sandals were the mark of a son, because servants went barefoot. Before the boy could negotiate a lesser identity, the father had dressed him as a full son and thrown a party. And it all ended where these stories always seem to end, at a table, at a feast.

This is how God receives you. Not with a probation period, but with a robe, a ring, sandals and a seat. Which raises the obvious question we will face tomorrow: if it is all a gift, what exactly is our part in it?

REFLECTION

Are you still trying to earn your way back as a hired servant, when the Father wants to dress you as a son or daughter? Where do you need to let Him interrupt your apology?

TAKE A SEAT

Stop rehearsing your unworthiness today. Receive the robe, the ring and the sandals: say out loud, "I am received as a son or daughter, not a servant."

PRAYER

Father, thank You that You run to me, that You interrupt my apologies with a robe and a ring and a seat at the feast. Help me stop bargaining for a lesser identity and simply receive the welcome You have already given. Amen.