Recently, I had an experience that brought this parable home to me in a new way. Several months ago, I suddenly noticed that my Indiana driver’s license was AWOL. This document is crucial for our family’s trips to the U.S., so I was troubled when I discovered it missing. I thought maybe it had fallen out in one of my drawers, and began the search.
For months, I hunted for my license. I emptied out many large drawers full of stuff, trying to find it. I researched what it would take to replace it online. The DMV required driver’s license number for this purpose, which I didn’t have memorized. I made more than one call, hoping for a different way, to no avail. I would have to go into their office in person, they said. My brain was rushing – We won’t have time to deal with this when we get there next time! Will I have to make a whole extra, expensive trip to the U.S. to solve this problem?
Then, in a quiet moment, Holy Spirit nudged me. Go look again. Suddenly, He gave me knowledge I didn’t have before. Your wallet is broken. I picked it up and explored the depths of one of the pockets with my finger. This is when I realized that the fabric had ripped, allowing the license to slip into the “innards” of the wallet. It had been there all along!
I immediately experienced a blast of relieved happiness. In fact, the rush of delighted emotions that washed over me was striking. I really can’t overstate to you how much it meant to me to make this discovery, with Holy Spirit’s help. I was profoundly grateful that He intervened and put a sudden, total halt to my frustrating need to search.
Just like in the Bible story, I wanted to call up my loved ones and have them rejoice with me! I did immediately message my best friend and share the good news with her. And then this parable dropped into my mind and spirit. In that moment, I felt the Lord saying,
You see why I put that story into the book of Luke? You are experiencing just the tiniest bit of what I experience when one of My children comes back to Me. You feel delighted? I feel ecstatic!!! My own euphoria is boundless. It goes infinitely beyond what words can adequately express.
That reminds me. I remember my pastor, years ago, talking about this parable. He pointed out that this passage says the rejoicing is “in the presence” of the angels. If you read closely, you see that it’s not the angels Jesus was referring to as gleeful. It’s Daddy God! He is the One rejoicing in their presence!
The truth we learn here applies to Daddy’s connection with you and me, too. You know how sometimes we allow guilt over our failings to keep us from His presence? And then His beautiful Holy Spirit woos us back to His waiting arms? This parable is about us too. Unbounded, ebullient, inexpressible joy fills Him up to overflowing when we return to His embrace.
So, in conclusion, hear this. You, dear one. You bring your Daddy far more joy than you know.
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Have you ever found something you thought was lost for good? Can you relate to this parable?
Feeding On Jesus 
Oh wow. I see even more in this. Your license was always there: it was just “hidden” on the inside of your wallet. Isn’t that the same with Prodigals? Jesus is still there. He hasn’t disappeared. In many ways I am seeing Jesus be unveiled more and more in my loved ones, the more I take Him at His Word and look for proof of it in them. MY faith is growing as He unveils theirs in my presence.
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So good! Amen and amen 🤗
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Makes me look back when Jesus first opened my eyes to see again (2014). He gave me two verses shortly after:
1 Corinthians 7:14 (ESV)
For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
And:
Ephesians 5:22-24 (ESV)
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
But I was stubborn. I allowed fellow believers to pity me and to focus on me being one who is persecuted daily for her faith. Gradually though, God used spiritual abuse to help me recognize Jesus and His Word to me through my husband. Continually, my husband would do and say things that fit with Scriptures God was laying before me. Oh how it broke me years later to look my own pride and self-righteousness in the eyes and to see how my husband perservered through years of this spiritual abuse against me in speaking the truth in love to me, forgiving me as I clung to what was stealing from me (and him) and trying to destroy me (and our marriage). He continually spoke the truth (even if it hurt me and caused me to sink into self-pity and self-condemnation) and showered me in compassion, showing such understanding for my struggle to surrender what I saw as the “truth”, which was in fact lies of the enemy, caging me. He has shown me the love of Jesus the most of anyone in my life.
Beautifully, I have watched this healing process I have been through and am still going through, healing other loved ones too, as it’s had them sharing childhood stories that they have never shared before, giving them a voice. God is breaking the hold of so much and affirming my own healing process as I watch my sharing bring breakthroughs in others.
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Your husband sounds like an amazing man, such a precious gift from God! Thank You Jesus for using our healing to bring healing to others.
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PS today is the day he asked me out 20 years ago (at the start of my running away, caught in the enemy’s accusations). God was always in it ALL. Only He could have orchestrated our stories and joining together. My husband pursued me into relationship and became the answer to my Mama’s prayers (for a husband who would truly love me for who I am – JESUS in me 😊). He’s restoring generations through us – only He could have done this. A Kiwi Prodigal meeting a Dutchman (son of Prodigals) in Switzerland, uniting two families forever (my Mama loved my in-laws so much and oh how they loved her too and my Dad so loves them too and they him). Our families have SO much in common, even worlds and cultures apart. Jesus always knew how He’d take what was sent to destroy us all and turn it into a feast of joy and laughter (my Mama and my husband had a bond in their humor and laughter together) and God’s not done yet.
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I didn’t realize you had a bicultural family too! Like mine, where God united me from the U.S. to my Peruvian husband here in Peru. All He has done through it is also amazing. Praise the Lord for His amazingly creative plans!
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Thank you for this reminder Message of Love and Power.
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You are welcome, dear Faye!
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I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve applied this; I’ve learned to say, “Heavenly Father, nothing is lost to You. You know where (whatever I’m looking for) is. It’s important to me to find it. Help me either find it or rest in the peace of knowing You know best, and maybe You don’t want me to find it.” So happy for you finding what had been lost.
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Thank you so much, Judy! It’s striking to me that I am just now reading your comment on this subject. I had a visitor come down to see us from the U.S. that kept me busier than usual and therefore I got behind on answering my blog comments, and just now catching up. I did not remember where I had left off, so I didn’t specifically expect for this subject to come up in my attention. And yet, just this morning, I was discussing with my oldest daughter how for the last three days in a row, she has asked the Lord to help her find something she had misp\laced. All three days (and it was even more than three occasions), she immediately found what she was looking for after she prayed. So, reading your comment feels like His highlighter once again about how much He cares about the things we care about! So, thank you 🙂 🌹
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I love when God does that. 🙂
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Meee tooo! ❤
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