The Prodigal Pig

Luke 15:20 - 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. (NIV)

As a boy, I worked summers on my uncle's pig farm. Every week, I pumped out the sewage pit running the length of the pig barn with the "honey wagon". 

One particular day, I backed up to the barn and pushed the suction hose between the large grates and into the liquid "soup" below.

Hearing squealing, I ran inside and jumped over the pen to where I had slid the hose down, and looked down to find that a pig had fallen into the "soup"!

I yelled across the yard for someone to "Get my uncle, and come quick!" 

I ran back into the barn, grabbed one of the grates over the sewage pit and swung down into the mess below. The liquid was well over my waist! 

The startled pig started a frantic swim for the far end with me pursuing. At the end of the pit I grabbed him by the ears and started my journey back to the open grate above. 

My uncle lowered a ladder, and I grabbed the slippery pig around his belly and lifted. Partway up the ladder, he kicked up a fight, and we both fell back under the surface. 

Sputtering and exasperated, I grabbed Mr Pig and this time got him high enough so that my uncle could grab him and pull him out. 

I was greeted with howls of laughter for my lifeguard efforts as I stood under the sun and got hosed down in my "birthday suit" to get cleaned off. My clothes were ruined and had to be buried.

I think of the rebellious son in Luke 15 who crested a hill and was spotted by his father "a long way off". Despite the repulsive condition of his son, the father ran to him, fell on his neck, and welcomed him with kisses. Such love surpasses our understanding.

Are you wandering? Do you feel no one notices you, no one cares? God knows and God cares. There is always a way back.

God has welcomed us into His presence. He has cleansed us from our sin through Jesus Christ. He has cleansed us and allowed us to sit in His banqueting house, despite our prodigal ways and the ravages of sin that mark us.

1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (NIV)

Prayer: Father in heaven, help us to cultivate compassion for others in our lives. Help us to realize that with You, there is no such thing as a "disposable" human being. Today, if we are people who are wandering like the "prodigal" of whom Jesus spoke, give us the humility to return to You, to Your ways, to Your Word. Amen.

Don Copp dcopp@canada.com
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Thanks to http://daily.presbycan.ca

The Shepherd's Voice

The Shepherd's Voice

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."1

I read about a shepherd from the Scottish highlands who, whenever he went out to take care of his sheep, would take his young daughter with him. The thing she enjoyed most of all was hearing her father call the sheep who always came to him. As the years passed she became a beautiful young woman and went to live in one of Scotland's great cities—Edinburg or Glasgow—to make a life of her own. At first she wrote home to her parents ever week, but in time her letters dropped off and soon she stopped writing.

Rumors filtered back that somehow she became involved with some unsavory characters. On one occasion when one of the boys from her hometown ran into her by accident, she totally ignored him. When her father heard this, he went to the city to look for her.

For days on end he looked for her. He looked in the slums, rows of houses, markets, taverns, and everywhere in between to no avail. After all of this searching he became very discouraged with the thought that he had lost his daughter to the evil city.

When leaving to return home, he remembered how his daughter always loved to hear the voice of the shepherd calling out to the sheep. "So he turned around and on this quest motivated by his sorrow and his love, he began to stalk the streets. His voice rang out the shepherds call. The citizens of the city all looked at him as if he had lost his wits. It wasn't too long as he walked the streets of one of the degraded neighborhoods that inside one of those houses, his daughter sitting among the vermin who had led her astray heard his voice. With great astonishment on her face, she heard that call of the voice of the shepherd, the voice of her father calling out to her. She leaped up and rushed out to the street and ran into the arms of that old shepherd, her father. It was then that he took her back home to the highlands of Scotland and brought her back to God and to decency and modesty."2

I wonder if any of our readers today can identify with this farm girl in that you have wandered away from God. If so, I urge you to stand still long enough to examine your life and listen with your heart to the call of Jesus, God's Shepherd Son, who is lovingly calling you to return home to him and again follow in his way.

1. John 10:27 (NKJV).
2. Adapted from a sermon by Philip Harrelson, "The Voice of the Shepherd." Cited on SermonCentral.

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Dick Innes