As I look out the window from 30,000 feet, I realize that we are small.  I am small.  The mountains that would normally tower above me and illustrate power and majesty seem more like the subtle cresting waves of calm day at the beach.  David understood something I had not when in the psalms he pronounced the mountains to simply be the footstools of God.

But I realize something else as well.  I want them.  I want the land and its solidarity, the mountains and their offering of adornment (not to mention mountain biking and snowboarding), and I want the rivers which are equipped with everything I need to be self sustaining.  So as I fly overhead I want to move west.  I want to purchase land near the mountains and streams and enjoy all that the earth has to offer.

In Luke 15 Jesus tells the story of a man who goes to his father and demands that his father give the man all the inheritance that would be due him at the time of the father’s death.  This is an incredible story that would have stunned  its listeners.  This request from the son was in reality telling the father that he wished the father were dead.  But even more incredible is that the father grants this request.

To give in to his son’s desires the father would have had to alter all that he had been preparing for.  There would be selling of land, recalling of debts, releasing of employees – a complete change in the fathers plans.  But he grants the request and gives his son what he desires.

Maybe this story is much more than just a story of a boy returning home.  Maybe it is also about understanding that the father has a plan for our inheritance.  Maybe our inheritance has been set aside for us, or better yet is being set aside for us.  Maybe this story is also about the pain our father feels when we demand that he give us our portion of the earth, peace, or security now.   According to Jesus HE is preparing a place for us.  And in another place he says that the meek will inherit the earth.  And in another he tells us not to store up treasures here on this earth.

So what are we saying to our father when we take it upon ourselves to use his money and his resources to purchase what we desire to have now?  What are we saying about the plans and directions Jesus gave us before he left?

This story is clearly about the returning.  The father welcomes the son with open arms as he runs to meet his son while he was still a long way off.  In his brokenness the son returns to find grace and forgiveness.

But what does he not find awaiting him?

An inheritance.

At one point we even see the father tell the other son, the one that stayed and followed the fathers plan, that now everything the father had belonged to him.

So while the story is clearly about the returning, maybe it is about something else as well.

Maybe the story is also about the leaving.  Maybe the story is also about a son who thinks he has a better plan than the father for the father’s resources.

So while the mountains look majestic and the scenery tranquil, I want to choose to wait and see what he has in store for us…our minds cannot comprehend.