Adam is infamous for being the first prodigal son. He tragically left his Father’s care to serve sin. There’s a famous song from the 1960s that sums up the Genesis Fall: “Don’t it always seem to go—That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?—They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”
Adam had a paradise, and he didn’t know what he had until it was gone. We can’t imagine his emotions as he stood banished from Eden, clothed in animal skins to cover his shame, with sweat beginning to form on his sinful brow.
And so it was with the prodigal son of whom Jesus spoke. He didn’t know what he had until it was gone—until he gazed with desire at the filthy pig food at his feet: “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’’” (Luke 15:17-19)
Years ago, I created a unique bird aviary that housed a dozen or so tame birds. It was unique because I had placed reflective film on the outside of our living room window and housed the birds in a caged-in area. This meant that we could watch them up close and personal without them knowing we were there. On one side, all they could see was mirrored glass. On the other side, they could see trees and the vast blue sky. Many wild birds would fly down, eat the seed we placed on a shelf, and then fly off into the freedom of the heavens. I would often wonder if the confined birds looked at the wild birds and longed to be free.
One day, my question was answered when I suddenly heard a bloodcurdling scream from a tiny wild bird. It was held in the clutches of a hawk and felt the sharpness of its beak rip into its tender flesh. I was horrified and ran outside to try and somehow rescue the poor bird. But, by the time I made it to the aviary, the hawk had flown up to the heavens with its doomed captive still in its grip.
I wasn’t the only one who had witnessed that horror. Each one of our tamed birds had heard that terrible scream. If they had in the past seen their cage as a horrible prison, I’m sure on that day they saw it as a wonderful protection.
No doubt, many a teenager in a Christian home has been dismayed that his parents confined him to a prison with endless rules, from restrictions on his music and phone to lectures about dating and sex before marriage—not to mention warnings about recreational drugs, no wild parties, no being alone with the opposite sex, no modern movies, etc.
But, as the years pass, he looks to where his unrestricted peers are now in life. That’s when he sees the results of the cruel grip of the adversary’s claws. He sees his secular friends have endured the pains that come with alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, gang-related activities, criminal behavior, divorces, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and the tragedy of premature deaths.
It was G. K. Chesterton who said, “Don’t remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.” The Christian home isn’t a restricted prison. It’s a wonderful and loving protection.
