Want and Need

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

I always chuckle (at least inwardly) at this verse each time I read the parable of the Prodigal son.    The younger son was “in want” long before that mighty famine arose, but this was a different “want” in verse fourteen, a “want” perhaps better stated as a “need,” a fundamental need like hunger or shelter.  Up to this point in his life, with his father and brother, and later while he “wasted his substance with riotous living” he may have had “wants” but his basic needs were certainly taken care of.  So by the time the mighty famine arises, the younger son may be experiencing fundamental need for the first time in his life.

Wants and needs, it’s so easy to confuse them.