“Here come I to my own again, Fed, forgiven and known again, Claimed by bone of my bone again and cheered by flesh of my flesh” (1-3).
Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, opened his poem “The Prodigal Son” with those lines. In it he writes from the perspective of the returning son. As we consider that thought, what should our response be to those that return? How should we approach the penitent brother or sister that has come back to their first love?
First, we must realize that there is already a burden of guilt upon those that return. It is not ours to make that burden any greater by subjecting them to our self-righteous judgments. Look at how those in the parable responded to the return. The father celebrated as one that received his child back from death (Luke 15:32). The older brother did not feel that his sibling was deserving of such treatment (Luke 15:28-30). The reality is nobody ever deserves the Father’s love. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes concerning the treatment of the repentant brother in Christ that had been withdrawn from. “Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him” (2:6-8). This is exactly what the father was doing. He was reestablishing the relationship that had been severed because of sin.
Second, they need to be built back up to a measure of strength. The wayward child had been in the far off land eating very little. Desiring to eat even the slop for pigs. When he returned home, I think of him as having a feeble body, barely able to walk. Spiritually, those that have wandered away for a length time are in a similar situation. “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). The word “restore” is the same word used in Mark 1:19 for mending nets. Hebrews 12:13 talks about the concept as though you are resetting a joint that was out of place. An arm that once hung lifeless to the side is set back in place and nurtured to usefulness.
When the lost son came to his senses, he returned home. We pray that those who are off in the far country spiritually would return also. Nothing would give heaven greater joy than for the wayward to say, “Here I come to my own again, fed, forgiven and known again…”