Lost Children and a Prodigal Father

According to History.com, the first Father’s Day celebration in the United States occurred on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington.  From that point, the tradition evolved and spread across the country in fits and starts until, in 1972, the day honoring fathers became an official national holiday.  Here in the US, we will celebrate Fathers on Sunday, June 18, 2023.  In  other countries in Europe and Latin America, however, fathers are traditionally honored on St. Joseph’s Day, a traditional Catholic holiday that falls on March 19.

Recently, my family and I had the chance to honor and surprise our father for his 85th birthday.  As we gathered as a family to celebrate and appreciate the sometimes imperfect, but always unconditional, love of “Pappa D,”  my thoughts also went to the archetype of all fatherhood - Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be His name.    

To catch a glimpse of the character and nature of Our Heavenly Father, consider what Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.  In this passage, some “rule-following” children of God the Father were upset with Jesus, the Son of the Father, because he was spending time with some “rule-breaking” children of God.   As he often did, to help the “rule-followers” as well as the “rule-breakers” understand their Father differently, Jesus began teaching them about the nature of God through stories.  Jesus introduces this teaching with stories about the passionate pursuit of a lost sheep and a lost coin, and how the shepherd and the woman go to great lengths to find and then joyously celebrate the recovery of what had been lost.  

In the third story, Jesus introduces us to a wayward and selfish son who wanders far from home, squanders his inheritance, and ends up lost and destitute.  This wayward son is often described as the “prodigal son” because of his reckless and selfish behavior and his “wastefully extravagant” spending of his father’s gifts.   

Interestingly, however, the Father never forgets nor forsakes his lost son.  The heart of the Father was filled not with contempt or condemnation, but with compassion.  In this story, Jesus reveals a Father who is eagerly watching and waiting, and who then breaks out in great joy whenever the one far from Him comes home.  The father runs to embrace his lost child, and he goes all-out to lavishly and extravagantly welcome his child, calling for the finest robe, the family ring, and the fatted calf.

According to Oxford Languages, the word prodigal comes from the Latin root prodigus, meaning  ‘lavish.’  The meaning of the word prodigal is “ wastefully extravagant.”  Clearly, the wayward son was wastefully extravagant with his father’s gifts.  However, the father in the story was likewise lavish and extravagant in how he welcomes his lost child.  Rather than responding with contempt or condemnation, the Father gives lavishly and extravagantly that which is not deserved: forgiveness, grace, blessing, celebration, and more. 

This is the kind of Father we have!  For all of us rule-breakers, may our prodigal Father in Heaven help us to understand and believe that He loves us and forgives us and welcomes us!  And for all of us rule keepers, may our prodigal Father in Heaven help us to embrace the fact that God loves and values all of His children unconditionally.  

Happy Father’s Day!  

Michelle Kinder

Keynote Speaker

Michelle Kinder is a Leadership Coach and a Licensed Professional Counselor. In her business, Embody EQ, she helps leaders doing good in the world embody their emotional intelligence and prioritize the mental health of their teams. She is a fellow of the OpEd Project and has articles featured in over a dozen publications including TIME, Washington Post, Texas Tribune, Ms. Magazine, The Hill, Dallas Morning News, Mindful Magazine, Huffington Post and PBS’ Next Avenue. She is a nationally recognized speaker on leadership, navigating stress and trauma, embodying emotional intelligence, and prioritizing the mental health of teams. She is also the co-author of WHOLE: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive and is a published poet. Michelle was raised in Guatemala as the fifth of six children and currently lives in Dallas with her husband, daughters, and pups.

“The perfect combination of passion, knowledge, poise, authenticity, warmth, and humor, Michelle Kinder holds her audiences in the palm of her hand. Each time I hear her speak, I feel moved, challenged, and spellbound. She’s masterful, relatable, and relevant.”

~Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D., co-author of The Whole-Brain Child, No Drama Discipline, & The Yes Brain

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Designed for Board Chairs and Heads of School, Rob Devlin and Mary Katherine Duffy will review a sample "Board Calendar" for the year, outlining suggested topics and generative questions to guide the work of the board through the school year from July-June....Learn More

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