\n
Prayer for a parent when a prodigal departs
\n(Somehow, I thought I knew all the turns and twists of this parable, but God always has one more perspective to teach me Luke 15)<\/p>\n
God, help me love
\nthis one who is walking away —
\nwithout imagining the worse,
\nanticipating a sweet, \u201cI told you so,\u201d
\nor curling up tight
\naround my own hurt feelings.<\/p>\n
Let me to paint encouragement
\nacross my worried face,
\nwave even when no one looks back,
\nsend letters and emails
\nthat don\u2019t ask pointed questions,
\nkeep tears out of my texts,
\nand whine out of my heart.<\/p>\n
Let me set aside the robe, ring, shoes
\nand celebration dinner menu
\nto be prepared
\nwhether the return is in triumph,
\nor disillusion and shame.<\/p>\n
Welcoming is not something
\nthat happens at the last moment.
\nGetting my love ready
\nfor that road dust kicked up in the distance
\nmay be the most important
\nwork in my life.<\/p>\n
I may never know what is going on
\nbetween here and a pig farm.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not really my business,
\nand if it helps for the story to be told,
\nit will help more
\nif I never repeat it.<\/p>\n
God, help me love these children
\nout the door,
\nlove them while they are missing,
\nlove them maybe home again,<\/p>\n
because I know what it is
\nto be loved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
synonyms for “Prodigal”..generous, lavish, liberal, unstinting,unsparing , bountiful… Also , as with the ” prodigal son”\u00a0 ..wastefully extravagant. Rev. Charlotte shared this poem written by her friend,..Maren Tirabassi Maren Tirabassi Prayer for a parent when a prodigal departs (Somehow, I thought I knew all the turns and twists of this parable, but God always has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5768,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions\/5768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}