My Family Journal: August 2011

07 August 2011

The Lost Love, The Prodigal Love

There was once a family, two parents and three children. The oldest child said to his family, "I want to begin my adult life, with family, home, and a career I love." Then the second child said to his family, "I am an adult now, and I want to start my family, buy a home, and begin to search and choose my career." Finally, the third child said to her family, "I, too, am an adult. I have chosen my career, and I am ready to begin my family."

So the parents said, "Go, with God's blessing and our's, for that is what each of us must do when the time of adulthood arrives." So the oldest child packed his bags and left for distant lands. There, he formed his family and found great success in his career. Likewise, the second child packed his bags, and though the lands he settled were not so distant, the career path was full and his family, like his elder brother's, began to grow. Finally, the the third child packed her bags, found favor with a fine young man, and with her career blossoming began to build her family.

And the parents said, "Our lives have been fruitful. Our children are strong, and healthy, becoming independent, and bound to increase the size of our family and, with that, our opportunities to spread the love we feel to many, to their spouses and their children, not to mention extended family members."

After some time had gone by, the children found their lives filled with activities and obligations that overflowed the vase of time available. When one of them would hunger for love, he or she would find it within the narrow lands now occupied by his or her small family and circle of friends. What need to look beyond this immediate place for love? Each personal vessel was adequately filled with love in his or her own home and local community.

Then an invitation arrived. Parents, some distance away now, not necessarily geographically, but psychologically, at the least, sought reunion. This family, growing in size, success, and independence, had grown in distance, too, and if each of the children did not notice it, certainly the parents did.

One child responded that with multiple schedules to meet and obligations to fulfill, a reunion was simply out of the question. Another child noted how this distance traveled, not necessarily geographically, but psychologically, at the least, established a seeming barrier to such an event as a reunion. And yet another child expressed concern at hob-nobbing with individuals whose style seemed incompatible with his or her own.

So the parents, noting the wide chasms within their family, curled up in their quilts for comfort and attempted to wipe away their tears of sadness. To them, love was forever, and love for their children was unconditional. Not unkind words, nor harsh judgement, nor absence could erase the love they felt for each of the children they had brought into this world. They understood, that people are different, and that liking one another or feeling respect for certain behaviors of others would be too much to expect of mere mortals.

But God gave to each of us the ability to love everyone, and expected us to share it with each other. Love doesn't mean you like someone. It doesn't require us to respect their behaviors. Love lives to grow, and the more we love the people we know, the more we can love the people we don't know. When love is given away, it multiplies, increasing all love given and all love received.

Somehow, this message of love reached each of these children, their spouses and all of their families. And while the children were still a long way off, the parents saw them, and their hearts pounded, as they raced toward them, embraced them, and kissed them. And each of the children, in his or her home that night, prayed, "God, forgive me for I have forgotten your greatest commandments. Today, through the love of my parents, You have reminded me that if I cannot love my brother or my sister, then surely, I cannot love You."

And not far away, a small child heard his parent speak this prayer, and she too, spoke to God, saying, "God, please guide me, as I grow up, to always remember my brothers and my sisters, not in judgement but in love."