“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son: make me one of thy servants.” Luke 15:18-19
It is easy to get caught up in the after story, the father’s welcoming the son back, the sandals, the robe, the ring, the killing of the fatted calf, the party, that we can forget that all of that resulted from a realization, then an admission by the younger son (first to himself, then to his father) that he had screwed up. That can be, is often, such a difficult step. It is so easy to blame other people, other circumstances, for difficulties in life, and so difficult to admit that the person in the mirror is the one who screwed up. Yet, as in this parable, it is that step that is often the one required to get to the road back.
It occurs to me... 