INHERITANCES CAN BE LOST

Reading the parable of the prodigal son always brings fresh questions and perspectives. Today, the verses of focus are 11 and 12 of Luke chapter 15.

To further illustrate the point, he told them this story: “A man had two sons. When the younger told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die!’ his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons."

After hearing the request of the son,  nowhere do we see an inquisition into the request made. All we read about is” an execution or honoring of a son’s request by a father” and that truly got my attention.

I wondered: was that the father saying ‘I don’t care’, ‘I trust you’ or ‘I expect you to learn from this-regardless of the outcome’. I was genuinely concerned because I wondered if a father, although with a heavy heart, would be so indifferent to freely give his child an inheritance due before time just because they asked.

We could argue that the only reason the father had anything to pass on was because he had received and expanded his very own inheritance. Yet, reading this story to the end, we come to the sad conclusion that this son ended up wasting his inheritance on riotous living, and so he would have had no inheritance left to pass on to his own children.

Beloved, inheritances can be wasted if they are handed down to poorly prepared children. This is not just material inheritance, but spiritual and social ones too such as ‘belief systems, a good name, relationships and graces’. Even though sons are deserving of inheritances, a lack of preparation to handle them poses an inherent risk that could ultimately lead to the loss of inheritances.

You are not a bad parent if you hold back some things from your children. You would not give the keys of an expensive vehicle to a five-year old simply because it is was an inheritance due them. We have to apply wisdom because inheritances can be lost when handed to unprepared children because ‘children need to grow up to inherit, they do not inherit to grow up’.

#sly