The story of the Prodigal Son is one of my favourite of Jesus' parables. If you're not familiar with it, have a read of Luke 15:11-32. I love it because I can relate to all the characters at various stages of my life.

At times I've been like the rebellious son who demands his inheritance early, runs away from home and spends his money on all the wrong things. 'Squandered his wealth in wild living' is how the Bible puts it and leaves us to imagine the sort of things he got up to. At other times I've been like the judgemental older brother, joylessly performing my religious duties and resenting the celebrations when someone 'undeserving' is forgiven and welcomed into church. But thankfully there can be times where I'm like the loving father, praying for my lost loved ones to return home and eagerly looking for them on the horizon, waiting to welcome them back with a hug.

Many of us will know the pain of seeing someone we love turn away from wholehearted obedience to God to pursue a gay relationship. Maybe it’s your son or daughter. Maybe it’s your best friend. Maybe it’s even someone you were in a gay relationship with who you hoped would re-commit to Christ when you did. Is there hope for our prodigal loved ones? I think that the Bible shows us that there's plenty of hope.

We only see part of the story

We haven't seen the end

We make certain assumptions when we're only partway through a story. Think of some films where you would have assessed a character very differently early on than you would at the end (for example, Dr. Cawley in Shutter Island or Snape in the Harry Potter franchise). How would your assessment of the character differ from someone who walked out halfway through? We often assume we know what's going to happen in a story, whether it's fictional or real life, but in the story of our lives only God knows how things are going to turn out.

In the story of our lives only God knows how things are going to turn out.

I’ve been a prodigal. I have previously left full-time ministry to live with my girlfriend before repenting and returning. I’m sure that in my rebellion some people would have looked at a snapshot of my life and given up hope that I’d ever come back to obedience to God. They would have written me off as a hopeless rebel and sinner. But I’m equally sure that others never stopped trusting God and were faithfully praying for me the whole time, because what's happening now isn't the end of the story. Only our wonderful God knows what will be in the end.

‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

We don't see the heart

We see our loved one's behaviour, but only God sees their heart. What might look like a descent into hard-hearted, uncompromising rebellion may be a bit more complicated. Many who get involved in same-sex relationships haven't necessarily changed their theology on sexual morality, some don't intend to stay away from God forever, and some are even secretly trying to work out if and how they could come back to him. In the midst of the confusion, hurt, anger and all the other emotions our loved one may be feeling, there is often a longing to know the love of Jesus. And he sees that.

‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7b).

God's heart goes out to the lost, the broken, the confused and the angry. The story of Scripture is the story of God lovingly pursuing his people, pouring out his grace and mercy and offering salvation and forgiveness on the cross.

‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’ (Luke 19:10).

We have a faithful and forgiving God

God never gives up on us. The Bible is full of God softening hard hearts and bringing back rebellious people. We can trust him to do that for those we love too. Jesus is more broken-hearted than us when our family and friends rebel, and he is the Good Shepherd who delights in bringing his lost sheep home (Luke 15:3-7).

Let's have a look at two biblical examples of God's people who fell into sin and were then forgiven and used powerfully by God.

David

Mighty King David was a 'man after God’s own heart' (Acts 13:22) and one of Jesus's ancestors whose writings are included in the Bible, including most of the Psalms. But in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 we can read the sordid story of his descent into adultery, deceit and murder. He neglected his military obligations and allowed himself to be overcome by lust for another man's wife. He then slept with her and had her husband killed. This wasn't a slip-up. It was a calculating, prolonged period of disobedience, where one sin (adultery) led to another (premeditated murder).

We're rightly upset when we see Christians – especially mature Christians – fall into sin, but I'm never quite sure why we're shocked. The fact is that all of us – however long we've been Christians, or however strong our faith – are prone to moral failure. David's story could have ended in disgrace (and he did suffer consequences of his sin), but God graciously sent the prophet Nathan to confront David, which led him to repent (and we can even see into David's heart of repentance in Psalm 51). The thing that really shocks me in this story is in 2 Samuel 12:13 when Nathan utters the words, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.’ Maybe we wouldn't be so gracious. Maybe we would think there was no way back for David after what he'd done. But we have a God who is able to take away sin and give us new life.

Peter

I love Peter. He’s passionate, hot-headed, enthusiastic and confused. We all know people like that (or maybe we are a person like that). Peter’s denial of Jesus (John 18:15-18, 25-27) was after he’d been following him for three years as one of the most passionate and committed disciples. He didn’t think he was capable of betraying and abandoning Jesus, but Jesus knew what would happen and still loved him and had big plans for him.

Peter goes from the polar opposites of denying Jesus to preaching Jesus in about 14 days.

Peter quickly learns the foolishness of turning his back on Jesus, and Jesus restores him and entrusts him with the incredible responsibility of building the church, only about two weeks after his rebellion. Peter goes from the polar opposites of denying Jesus to preaching Jesus in about 14 days (the approximate time between John 18:16-27 and John 21:15-17). Mere weeks after denying Jesus, Peter was delivering one of the most powerful sermons in recorded history which resulted in the number of people following Jesus increasing from 120 to 3000 (Acts 2:14-41).

How many of us on seeing Peter deny Jesus the night that Jesus was arrested would have thought it was game over for him? A tragic end to a promising ministry. And yet Jesus sees his heart – both his capacity for terrible sin and his desire to follow Jesus even to death (John 21:18-19). Jesus’s knowledge of Peter wasn’t just informed by Peter’s sin, but by the deep relationship that they’d cultivated over the years. Jesus was able to see the man behind the act of denial, in all his faithful and rebellious complexity. He was able to forgive, restore and commission Peter to be the leader of his church.

‘The limping Peter's betrayal of the Master, like so many of our own moral relapses and refusals of grace, was not a terminal failure but the occasion for painful personal growth in fidelity.’1

Time and again in the Bible we see God’s faithfulness to faithless people. People who committed murder, adultery, deception and betrayal have been used by God to build his kingdom. So where does this leave us when we think about our own prodigals?

We can pray for our prodigals

When we are broken-hearted over a friend who has left the church to live with her girlfriend, or a son who has married his boyfriend, it's helpful to remember that we can’t see people's hearts and we don’t know the end of the story. But Jesus can and does.

We can't bring our prodigals home, but our faithful and loving God can. Let's return to the story of the prodigal son and notice what it says in verse 24:

‘For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate’ (Luke 15:24).

The prodigal son wasn’t just lost, he was dead. The best human father in the world can’t bring a dead son back to life again. That takes the resurrection power of God. God is working by his power in our loved ones’ lives right now, so the best things we can do right now are trust God's character, pray for them, and not lose hope.

And if you're a prodigal reading this, can I invite you to come home? You might not have spent all your inheritance yet. You might feel that there’s more wild living to be done, but the world can’t offer you what you want. Sooner or later you're going to end up disillusioned and in your equivalent of a pigsty. All the prodigal son had to do was get out of the pigsty and go home to his father. He didn’t have to go through his prepared speech. He didn’t spend years rearing the fatted calf and get it all prepared. He didn’t have to send out the party invitations and organise all of the hospitality. All he had to do was receive it. So come home. There's a lovingly-prepared feast waiting for you and people who can't wait to celebrate.

1. Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Authentic, 2009), p.150.