This week, we continue with our Lent Reflections on the Story of the Prodigal Son!

Have a chat with those around you… what is the best thing you can earn in life?

Working hard and achieving great things is something that should be celebrated!

But sometimes we see in our world, that we’re taught our value is just found in what we can earn - love, money, friends, status. But God shows us that our value is from Him and not something that we have to earn. He calls us as His own children and shows we have immense worth to him, just by being His. We see this love demonstrated in the Prodigal Son story.

Choose someone to read out what the son says to himself, before he chooses to return home:

 'I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

But when he gets home and is greeted by his loving father, who welcomes him again as his child. The father gives us sandals to wear on his feet.

That sounds a bit weird to us, but in the time of Jesus, slaves and hired servants were not given shoes. Only sons and daughters received shoes. When the father gave his son a pair of shoes, he was saying: “You are not coming back as a hired servant or a slave. I am receiving you back into the household as my son.”

Like the son in the story, we can often feel that we don’t deserve to be a child of God. But God has spoken and calls us His children. It says in 1 John 3:1, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

It is not about what we can do to earn it or prove ourselves worthy of it, but who we are.

Let’s finish by spending a quiet moment listening to this song and reflecting on what it means to us to be a Child of God.

Prayer

Dear God, when my mind is full of negative thoughts about myself, help me to remember I am Your child. Help me to remember that you have created me for a purpose and a reason and that I have so much to offer this world. Help me to accept who I am, who you created me to be, and not compare myself to others.

Lord, I want to see myself as you see me.

Amen