I am a lover of words. I love to let them roll around my mind or on my tongue, to play with alliteration and double meanings, imagery and unexpected uses. I like to think I know a lot of words. I was reminded today that there’s always more to learn.
I read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation this year, for the first time ever. I started in December of last year with an ESV version that happened to have about 365 pages. I read, more or less, a page a day. Though there were lots of new stories and history in its pages for me, there were several stories I already knew, including the story of the Prodigal Son.
For the last month or so I’ve been reading A Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Bible– a book I bought many years ago when I was convinced I couldn’t read the Bible without some help. That guide sat in my closet for over a decade, but for the month of December I’ve read a chapter a day from this guide. And again, though there are some stories in it that I knew already, some stories, ideas and history were new to me.
Prodigal. It doesn’t mean son-who-tucked-his-tail-and-returned-to-eat-crow-so-he-could-eat-something. It doesn’t mean owning up to your mistakes. It doesn’t mean to return, or to return after being gone for some time, or to return to a warm, grace-filled welcome.
According to merriam-webster.com (and The Idiot’s Guide), prodigal is characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure; lavish; recklessly spendthrift; yielding abundantly; luxuriant.
To learn that took my breath away. I literally gasped when I read that definition.
Where in this coming year can I be prodigal? Where can I love prodigally? To love so lavishly and profusely- to love with such reckless abandon- that it must be fueled by someone else, from a love so much bigger than what my little heart can muster on its own.
As we all stretch toward the finish line of 2020, eager to start fresh in 2021, my challenge is to love so prodigally- giving it away so freely and abundantly- that God’s kingdom grows from His love flowing through us all.
May 2021 be a year filled with prodigal love.