We like making plans. We have expectations for the future. We have been created with this extraordinary capacity to think about the future. We plan our professional and our family lives. We make plans for travel, for holidays. Perhaps we also plan concrete ways in which to serve the Lord. That’s desirable.

If we’re seeking to live according to his wisdom (see v 20), we can be encouraged to expect that our plans will accomplish God’s will.

As Luke says at the beginning (v 11), this story is about two sons. The heading in the CEV gets this right. So often it is referred to as the parable of the prodigal (i.e. wasteful) son, and the second half is ignored. Remember, Jesus is speaking to a mixed audience, tax collectors and sinners, on the one hand, and the religious elite on the other. So we’ll look at both brothers.

Everything about the younger son is despicable. What’s he thinking of, squandering his inheritance in this way?

Few of us are likely to be a king. The wealth and authority may appeal to us. However, with the wealth and authority come responsibility and challenges. King or not, we do experience life like King David and life is not always easy. We live with the choices that we or others have made. Some of those choices are good. An education usually means a higher income. A wise choice in a spouse means a happy home and family.

Years ago Christians used to have things called promise boxes in their homes. They were small containers that held little cards in them on which were written promises from the word of God. Sometimes on the back of the promise card would be a saying or some writing or quote that applied to the promise. Here is what they missed. All of the promises of the Bible are true but God looks for a response from us.

David is here extolling the greatness of God and the spiritual, emotional and physical energy that this gives him. Many years earlier David stood on the field of battle and faced a giant called Goliath. David did not come against Goliath with an army or weapons of war but as a boy with a sling-shot and in the name of the Lord. Before going to the field of battle David went to a small brook and from the brook took five small, smooth stones.

One of the saddest moments in any life is coming to the end and looking back with moments of regret. This is not about those moments we all remember where we did or said something so embarrassing that we remember with some degree of shame or regret that it happened. No, it is the moments in our lives where if we could we would do them over because of the impact that one moment had on our life and the lives of others who mean something to us. Most of us have some of those moments.

When I’m reading the Bible I often imagine the characters mentioned as the real life women and men they were. Historical people who lived daily lives far beyond the scope of their write-ups in the Bible. I wonder what they looked like. How did their voices sound? I even think, if I was going to paint one of them, who amongst the people I know would l ask to model for a particular Bible personality?