Words of Reflection

A man is sitting on the pavement beside the bus stop sign staring on the floor. This is the city where he grew up as a child. His parents’ home was the little red house at the end of the street. The man remembers all the flowers in the front yard and the swing that his father built for him. It was the place where his dad taught him how to ride the bike. For many months his parents had saved some money so that they could buy the bike for their son. After ten years the son traded the bicycle for a motorbike. It was the time when he was almost never home. He earned good money and had a lot of friends. Father and mother were so out of date and boring. Today the man thinks about the growing debts he had back then. On a Sunday afternoon he visited his parents and wanted to ask them for some money. But when he was with them and saw their joy of having their son for a visit he was not able to beg for the money. Instead in a moment when no one was looking he took the money out of his dad’s wallet and left without a word. Since then he has not seen his parents anymore. He went overseas and lived a restless life that brought him to jail eventually. There he swore to himself that he would go back to his father and his mother and ask for forgiveness. A couple of days ago he wrote a letter to his parents and told them that he would come on this Tuesday morning. However, he also wrote them that he was not sure whether they wanted to see him or not. So he suggested in his letter, that his parents could make a sign by hanging a white tissue out of the window if they agreed on seeing their son after a couple of years without hearing from or knowing of him. And now it is Tuesday morning and the man stands up from the pavement and walks slowly toward the end of the street. He does not dare to look up until he stands under the old oak tree. There he lifts up his face and he stares and stares and stares. The little red house was almost not red anymore but white! The parents have taken all the linens and white table cloths and whatever they could find to hang around their house. They wanted to make sure that their son would get the message! The son throws back his head and laughs and starts running back home.

The same way that the man came back to his parents and found an open door and loving forgiveness, every single human being is invited to come back to the heavenly father who loves humankind beyond our understanding.

Deutsche Evangeliumskirche