“And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” Luke 15:13
Conjures up a nice mental picture doesn’t it – “riotous living.” I love the phrase, the wordsmithing — “and wasted his substance on riotous living.” I guess those are relative terms. One man’s riot is another man’s “party” is another man’s “just having fun.” I have always interpreted this as meaning that the younger son blew his money on something on which the father and older son would not have approved, thumbing his nose at them from that “far country.”
In that sense I am like the younger son. God regularly places his wishes in front of me and I have ignored them, even thumbed my nose at them. But then I am also like the father and have been on the receiving end of the thumbed nose. That’s the bad news. The good news is that whether I am the offender or the offended, thumber or thumbee, there is always an opportunity for grace and/or forgiveness. And, to quote Robert Frost, “that has made all the difference.”
It occurs to me... 