Want

From the Prodigal Son parable, Luke 15:14: “And when he had spent it all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”

Today, the irony of the “and he began to be in want” hit me.  Hell, the younger son had been living in want.  He was living in want when he asked his father to “give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,” and certainly well before that.  Yet he remained in want even when he got what he wanted.  The fullness of the irony comes around when we realize that it was not until he had lost it all, come to his senses, swallowed his pride, and returned home to his father, that his want abated — which takes us back to Epicurus: “Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.