Dictionaries define "prodigal" as "wastefully extravagant and lavishly abundant." That certainly describes the God that Jesus incarnates and reveals.
If we look back on our lives with honesty, we have to admit that of all the invitations that God has sent us, we have probably accepted and acted on only a fraction of them. There have been countless times we have turned away from an invitation. For every invitation to maturity we have accepted, we have probably turned down a hundred. But that is the beauty and wonder of God's richness. God is prodigal, abundant, generous, and wasteful beyond our small fears and imaginations. And that invites us to be generous and generative.
