Article March 23, 1998 Issue

Your Father is always glad to see you

You couldn't ask for a better heritage.

By Mabel Brennan Fisher

Jesus' parable of the prodigal son—what a beautiful statement of man's eternal unity with his Father-Mother. In this story the younger of two sons asks his father to give him his inheritance immediately. His father obliged, and the son "took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living" (Luke 15:13). Before long the inheritance is gone. A famine ensues, and the son is so desperate for food that even the husks fed to the swine look tempting. At this point the son must have felt alienated from everything that really mattered in his life. Additionally, he had to have known that his own behavior had gotten him into this state. The turning point comes when, as the Bible says, "he came to himself" (Luke 15:17). It's as though he suddenly remembers who he really is. He has a father, a family, a home. He should not starve in a far-off place. Humbly, he returns home, willing even to work as a servant if necessary.

Haven't we all on occasion pursued materialistic goals, behaved in self-serving or excessive ways, and become miserable as a result? At such times it's important to remember who we really are—children of God with "a goodly heritage" (Ps. 16:6) of purity, temperance, meekness, balance. Science and Health states it simply: "Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle" (p. 303).

That truth about each of us—our true, spiritual identity as God's man—never changes. But human belief accepts that man is material and that both pleasure and pain come from matter. If we agree and behave accordingly, we eventually become aware that something is not right, that we are not "at home" with this belief. This uneasiness should remind us that we are not actually material but spiritual, and turning thought from material sense toward God brings our lives into line with our true nature and makes us feel as though we have turned homeward toward God.

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JESUS' PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON