Friday 24th April Daily Message

Friday 24th April Daily Message
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April 24, 2020
in Minister's Daily Message
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Dear Reader
Now into our second month of restrictions, I thank you all for your continuing and encouraging messages of support. I thank you too for the many ‘funnies’ doing the rounds for our amusement. It’s good to laugh.
Dependent on personal circumstances, we have been truly fortunate with the lovely weather. I suspect being stuck up a high rise can’t be easy though, good weather or bad and the good weather might understandably make little difference. It might even cause more frustration and I have sympathy for those in that situation.
I was once asked at a party, only once mind you, to sing a song. I chose a favourite of mine, ‘My old friend the blues’. Afterwards, I was then asked to sing a couple more. It was suggested I sing, ‘Will ye no come back again’ followed by ‘From a distance’. I received an encore to sing the amended version of the first song, ‘Will ye definitely no come back again,’ I stayed and the son in our parable came back again.
The son in our parable today has historically been called the ‘Prodigal Son’ and the same parable has also been described as the ‘Loving Father’. It is both, as it speaks as much about the father as it does about the son. The parable is very well known and it is the father in the story that I’m thinking of today. He watched each day ‘from a distance’ hoping to see the unmistakable silhouette of his son, missing, for too long. He loved his son and wanted him back.
There are many tortured anguished parents today aching to embrace their missing children, hoping against hope that they might see them again one day. How desperately sad such poor souls must feel. Their loved ones are categorised as ‘Missing persons’, devoid of any affection. We are all aware today of the difficulty of separation, this is temporary though, but we still have a longing to have our loved ones ‘back’ again.
God knows each of us by name and nature. Sometimes we too, of our own choice, ‘wander away’. Some folk say that they have lost their faith and some are embittered. Who knows what goes on in peoples’ minds and the reasons that bring unhappiness and even despair. Sometimes we just ‘drift away’ without making a conscious decision to do so and at other times we simply feel lost, and God it seems is far away too. Mental illness is often hidden and we can all at times feel alone, separated and not understood. Life can be very dark.
Whatever your feelings today and whatever your circumstances and state of mind be assured that in Jesus Christ that seeming and ‘unbridgeable’ chasm that separates has been crossed and a safe and secure passage is made for us. The grasp of the Almighty is strong and secure, we might let go, but he will never let us fall. The loving father never abandoned or forgot his missing son and they were reunited and celebrated. So too will we, shortly.
Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.
God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

LUKE 15: 11-32

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

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