God is everywhere. He always shows up. He's inside and outside of everything. The world is His and all that is in it. He stands in all the houses and churches where he is not wanted seeking out his sheep. He spends hours and hours in these places seeking, searching, and finding his sheep. Just like the Father in the Prodigal Son.
The Jews heard the Prodigal Son story way different than we do. When the youngest Son asked for his inheritance money from his father, he was not being impertinant. In Jewish tradition, he was saying to the Father, I wish you were dead. When the oldest son did not try to reconcile his younger brother to his father, he was doing the very same thing. SO, when the father welcomed the Son home after he searched and waited for his son to come home, he was doing so, even though his own child had wished him dead. All Jews understood this to be the message of the Prodigal Son: that God sought to reconcile his child (his people) even though the His people treated the Father as if he did not exist.
Reconciliation is the Jewish message of the Kingdom of Heaven.
God is there always. It is us that is not.
The Jews heard the Prodigal Son story way different than we do. When the youngest Son asked for his inheritance money from his father, he was not being impertinant. In Jewish tradition, he was saying to the Father, I wish you were dead. When the oldest son did not try to reconcile his younger brother to his father, he was doing the very same thing. SO, when the father welcomed the Son home after he searched and waited for his son to come home, he was doing so, even though his own child had wished him dead. All Jews understood this to be the message of the Prodigal Son: that God sought to reconcile his child (his people) even though the His people treated the Father as if he did not exist.
Reconciliation is the Jewish message of the Kingdom of Heaven.
God is there always. It is us that is not.
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