A Father’s Day Story— A Father’s Miracle

By Dennis Edwards

Columnist

After 14 years the cell rang early on the first Sunday afternoon in March. It was an unexpected gift on the heels of my return to a church pulpit after a long absence. My son, my only child was on the other end saying “Dad, it’s me Justin.” “I just called to see how you’re doing.”

All I could say was “Boy, you don’t know how long I’ve waited for this call.” It wasn’t easy talking through copious joy cascading within a grateful soul. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you Son?”

Through a steady stream of tears, we talked father to son, consumed by emotions so strong, I struggled to speak clearly.

The product perhaps of a welcome relief from that nagging resignation within to possibly never hearing from him again. Now, my one and only child was back. My son just wanted to see how his dad was doing! And I desperately needed to hear his voice, where he is and how he’s doing too.

This is where I personally came to perceive how the father in the story of the Prodigal Son really felt. To comprehend a prodigal state of recklessly extravagant love with its re-uniting and saving power.

To be sure, there are two prodigals in this story. A prodigal son who had to find out some things on his own and a prodigal father who embraced his return with an equally lavish love. A different, perhaps more powerful kind of recklessness.

Now, you need to know, my son is NOT like the Bible’s prodigal son in any way. He is meticulous, thorough, responsible to a fault as well as kind. The type of man who’s achieved magnificently on his own with a B.S. in Finance from Hampton University and an MBA from Indiana University. Who’s, by the Grace of God, maximized his opportunities in-spite of things that went wrong on a dark and misunderstood afternoon his mother and I experienced too many years ago.

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You should also know how the mysterious and magnificent prelude to this reunion began about 12 months earlier. In the shadow of years of trying to re-connect, trying to call, receiving no answer and no call back. After years of what felt like endless angry rejection, The Lord suddenly moved in a mighty way.

As I sat in my recliner one evening, the escalating and intensifying warmth of the Holy Spirit embraced me. It was pursued by the calm, kind and clear voice of the Father saying, “You need to let them go.” The Lord was talking about my son, his mother, and all the hurt in “buked and scorned” life chapters so very long before. I was anxious to say “Yes Lord.”

So I let them go and God brought him back after I’d returned to a pulpit that had lost its luster for me some time before. God immediately affirmed the obedience with a call from my son. This is where the old folk might say “Don’t tell me, Don’t try to tell me, Don’t even think about telling me what the Lord Can’t Do.” He did that for me, he did it for my son and he can do the same for you and yours too.

So this Fathers Day, don’t deprive yourself of the overwhelming reciprocity of a God who rewards those who diligently serve him. In the shadow of a Savior who never gives up in us and on us, don’t dare give up on the return of your sons or your daughters. Never give up on the God who gives better than He gets. The Savior who rewarded me for returning to the pulpit with the return of my son on the very same day. Is there something and/or someone you need to return to now?

Remember the nuances, what happens in the here and now when our judgement reflects the judgement of God himself from Revelations 21, that present/future tense eschatological promise. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away … and behold … ALL THINGS ARE BECOME AS NEW. Won’t he do it? YES HE DOES!

Dennis Edwards is a Major Market Emmy and Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Award winning T.V. and WRVA Radio News Anchor, Investigative Reporter, Columnist and Pastor. He is a graduate of Virginia Union University and its Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology.  © June 2024