An article in The Commercial Appeal (4-20-23) tells a dramatic story about the love of Walter Watkins and son for their stolen dog. The dog, Hennessy, was stolen from their yard when she was only three months old. A neighbor said she saw a man pull Hennessy over the fence. Walter and his 10-year-old son started running through the neighborhood searching for their lost “treasure” but to no avail. For two years they continued searching everywhere and in every way they could imagine possible, before finally giving up.
Almost two years to the day the dog was stolen, Walter received a call from the Olive Branch Animal Shelter. Hennessy had been sold to a family in Olive Branch and the shelter found her after she had gotten lost.
The shelter was able to connect Watkins with Hennessy because Watkins had chipped her when she was a baby and kept his contact information updated on the chip that was injected under the pet’s skin using a hypodermic needle.
The newspaper carried a wonderful picture of Hennessy and told the thrilling story of the father and now 17-year-old son weeping with joy at her recovery and homecoming.
It may be a negative indictment of me and the limitations of my communication to tell this story to call us to a worthy and serious celebration of Father’s Day (6-18-23). I confess, when I read that story I thought of the Story of the Prodigal Son, which has been called “the most divinely tender and most humanly touching story ever told.” (Luke 15:11-24)
It is worth noting that, in Luke’s gospel, this story is linked with two other stories. Jesus told: the lost sheep that had strayed and was lost, and a coin that had been. Misplaced. The son was “prodigal” was a willful decision. He was determined to lose himself. In the idiom of our day, he wanted to tell his family to “get lost.”
The story of the Prodigal Son is worth a lot of pondering as we celebrate Father’s Day (June 18) Let’s remember this part of the story: when the young man came to his senses, he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke15:2)
No matter where or how prodigal and lost we are, we can come home to the Father. The welcome lights are always burning.