THE PRODIGIOUS FATHER

Once upon a time, there lived an extraordinarily wealthy person. He was a very wise and astute investor. He had business empires here and there. He was a very generous father and he had four children. His policy was to have all his children born and bred abroad for an integral learning experience right from their childhood. He gave each one of them powerful instantaneous means of communicating with him at any given moment. He asked them not to request their needs from any other person. His plan was to bring back home each child that graduates so that he/she would inherit a business empire of his/her own to manage and enjoy. And he made this known to them.

His children seemed to love and appreciate him very much. They sang his praises to the sky and habitually thanked him for his large heartedness. They called on him each time they needed anything and he supplied all their needs and was never found wanting.

He gave his first child all he needed and even more to satisfy his wants and help his friends. When he graduated, his father asked him to return home to take over a business empire as planned but he said over his father’s dead body would he come home.  “Imagine, I have been studying and now that I want to relax and indulge myself a little my father is calling for my return home. No not yet!”

The father thought that the boy behaved that way because he was over pampered. So he curtailed what he was giving to the second child. He gave him exactly what he needed and no more. His wants should wait. When he graduated, he was also not prepared to return home to inherit a business empire. He said he needed more time to cool off. His father was disappointed. He decided not to give the third child all his needs. Maybe poverty will make him long for home immediately he graduates. This child received half of his needs from his father and worked for the remaining half. So he got used to working. When he graduated, he insisted on working in foreign land and enjoying himself before ever thinking of returning home. The father felt really bad and would not give the fourth child any financial assistance. “If she struggles too hard, she will be forced to run home at the end of her studies. Austerity will do that for me.” This child struggled through her studies and her father called her home but she too said over her father’s dead body would she return home. “I have been suffering, toiling and moaning and now that I am about to experience a new lease of life my father is asking me to come back home.” She rather begged her father who was highly connected to help her secure a job abroad whereas the post of executive director, a business empire, and great wealth awaited her at home! If you were the father how would you feel?

Interestingly, these children continued to tell their father that they love him and they miss him. They praised him unceasingly from the rising of the sun to its setting. This made the father to feel for them more and more. The nostalgia made him re-enact the drama of the proverbial Rabbit and the Oil bean tree. The Rabbit had his hole far away but quite often when the Oil bean pods exploded, oil bean seed fell by the Rabbit’s hidey-hole. The Rabbit thought: “This Oil bean tree loves me. I am far away yet he sends me seeds to eat. He will surely give me more when I live close to him.” So the Rabbit burrowed a new  hole at the foot of the Oil bean tree but when the pods exploded they scattered their seeds far away and the rabbit living close by could not receive even one.  What a dramatic irony! The father went to live with his children abroad but they ignored him.

CRITICAL THINKING

The large hearted father in the parable is God. The four children he sent abroad are living creatures and the earth is the foreign land (abroad). Prayer is the powerful instantaneous means of communication which he gave them; network failure does not affect this telephone to heaven. It is through prayer that everyone contacts God.  God blessed many creatures with surplus wealth, good health, talents and wonderful opportunities, which they enjoy very much.  However, whenever the thought of death comes, they say God forbid, yet death is not only homecoming but also an opportunity for more enjoyment of greater things to come.  They cannot afford to return to the father. Even the physically impaired beggars, the less privileged that wallow in sickness and abject poverty, those who struggle every day for their daily bread, are still not prepared to die. Whenever they recover from sickness or survive an accident, they mark it with thanksgiving celebration. When they hear of death, they too say God forbid! How will God forbid his own will and His children’s homecoming?  How do we expect a father to forbid his children’s return to their fatherland? The youth say they are too young to die. The aged too are not ready to die. They have one or two things more to put in order. Life is full of ups and downs and there are so many setbacks here and there which detract from man’s happiness making it impossible to have full and lasting joy on earth yet no one is ready to go to where there is full and lasting happiness. Some creatures like reptiles, even snakes that craw on their belly and eat dust, slough off their dead skin, relocate and continue to live. No one wants to die or return to the father yet each one loves him. This is enigmatic.

Worshippers thank and praise God’s wisdom, infinite goodness and mercy. From morning till night thanksgiving, praise and joyful songs are on their lips yet nobody wants to die in order to go back to this loving and faithful unfailing father, who supplies all their needs. They claim to love him yet nobody is prepared to return to him despite the wonderful opportunities and marvellous life awaiting them in the yonder world. Because people on earth praise God so much, God said “These creatures of mine love and praise me very much. When I bring them home and they experience my lavish love, magnificence and blessedness, they will praise and worship me more.” But every creature on earth abhors death. Neither man, who is very much endowed, nor the snake, which craws on its belly, wants to die. Not even the birds of the air, frogs and crickets that continually sing the cosmic hymns of praise want to return to their maker. God said “Okay since they are unwilling to come to me, let me go to them. I cannot abandon my family.” Like the proverbial Rabbit that went to live close to the Oil bean tree, God incarnated and came to earth to live among his creatures but instead of giving him rousing welcome, and paying him homage, they ignored Him for years and eventually got rid of him. His creatures speak from both sides of the mouth.