What if the story of the prodigal son
had a different ending? What if when the younger son came home the
father said to him “you are dead to me.” Would it still be a
story of redemption and salvation? Yes it would. But, you object,
the younger son would then have nothing, complete and abject poverty
and no family and no hope of help, how can that be salvation? The
exile that the younger son experienced, he brought on himself. He
was separated from his true self, the one who was son and brother,
loved and cared for. He instead chose to leave all that in order to
get what he thought he wanted. Maybe he even thought he would find
himself in all of the sex and drugs and rock & roll. And perhaps
he did. He found rock bottom, complete exile, total emptiness. How
is that a gift? It is a gift because of what happened for him at the
end of the journey; he came to himself. When he came to himself, he
began a new journey, the journey home where he offered his confession
of sin. And THAT was his redemption and salvation. He gave himself
the gift of removed burden by simply putting it down. He gave
himself the gift restored relationship by putting himself in the
position where he restored the part of the relationship that he
could, his. He came to himself, he looked in the mirror and saw the
truth, and ugly as it was, he accepted it...and found his salvation.
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