My mom’s daily delight was observing wildlife from her porch overlooking our country pond. One spring morning, she watched six fluffy ducklings trail their mother across the water. Gripping her coffee mug, she stared in disbelief as the sixth duckling at the row’s end suddenly vanished underwater, leaving only ripples. Moments later, as the mama duck and her entourage paddled obliviously onward, the smallest splash occurred near the end of the line, and the fifth baby duck disappeared. The predators of the pond, giant snapping turtles, had snatched and stolen those ducklings.
Christian families worldwide face the sorrow of dear prodigals being pulled off the path of righteousness. The enemy of our souls comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He comes at night and, yes, like those snapping turtles, sometimes in broad daylight. Our enemy isn’t flesh and blood, but rather Satan and spiritual forces of evil who prowl around, seeking someone to devour (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8).
Our precious ones may be captured right now. Our beloved may be wandering, willfully resisting Jesus. But unlike those drowned ducklings, hope remains for our ensnared and wayward kids. So how can parents care for prodigals and help guide them back to Christ?
Intercede in Prayer
Fight on your knees for your children. It’s gut-wrenching when someone we love, someone we’ve tended to and invested in for decades, strays from Christ. Some days will bring you to your knees. Stay there. The one who can recover what’s been stolen meets us on the floor.
Pray over every good thing God knit into your beloved: the seeds of faith, the kindness, the curiosity, the playfulness, the artistic talent. You know the list because you watched it develop and helped it unfold. God, who gave all of those gifts, can consecrate them afresh to Christ. Ask him to nurture every evidence of grace you can recall.
Pray Isaiah 43:12–13 when fear wakes you at 3:00am and whispers that your wanderer is beyond reach:
I am God. . . .
I am he;
there is none who can deliver from my hand;
I work, and who can turn it back?
From eternity to eternity, God is God. No one can wander beyond his reach. In dark hours, pray that your children would return to the Father’s keeping (John 17:11) and have a faith that doesn’t fail (Luke 22:32).
Pray according to who God tells us he is: compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Though he does not excuse the guilty, he forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin (Exodus 34:6–7). Thank God that he is a relentless mercy-giver, and trust him to go where you cannot.
Extend Kindness with Truth
Be kind without compromise. “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly,” Peter tells us (1 Peter 4:8). If God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4), then our earnest love, extended through his strength, can become a path toward reconciliation and restoration. Serve your wanderer in creative, thoughtful ways, and say yes to requests whenever you can.
In our society, “affirmation” has been hijacked to mean validating someone’s feelings and choices, whatever they may be. Biblical affirmation is far richer: declaring God’s truth over others, calling out the good he has placed in them, and reminding them of gospel hope. One centers on the self; the other centers on the Savior. Look for evidence of God’s work in your wanderer, and find ways to say, “Well done!” often.
Extending kindness includes a caveat: We are to offer it without compromising truth. The apostle Paul says love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). If we compromise the truth of God’s word to keep the peace, we turn off the very porch light we pray will draw our wayward ones home.
Hope in God’s Sovereign Work
When you become weary, when you struggle to keep fear at bay and maintain quietness of soul, perhaps it’s time to rest under that same porch light.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope. . . .
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
God’s willing, plentiful redemption frees us from despair to hope in his character (Psalm 130:5, 7).
Jesus has all power over physically and spiritually dead people. I am deeply comforted by Martha’s faith as she modeled resting in hope even after she prepared her brother’s body for burial. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Martha cried out in faith, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She had still greater faith to continue, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (John 11:21–22).
On my daily prayer calendar, a yellow Post-it keeps my place. Every morning when I move it to the next day, I read the soul-steadying words written in permanent black marker: “Even Now.” I am emboldened by the faith of the woman who taught me to pray these two words. The same Jesus who called Lazarus out of a physical tomb can call your wayward child out of a spiritual one. No matter how far your wanderer has gone or how long he has been gone, even now Jesus is able to bring this precious one home.
Jesus defeated death. He walked out of his own tomb — which means no tomb, physical or spiritual, need have the final word. “According to his great mercy, [God causes] us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
Spiritually dead wanderers, prodigal sons, lost daughters, snatched children are not beyond his reach. Though our treasured ones have been captured by the devil’s snare to do his will, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,” and they may escape (2 Timothy 2:25–26). Not all who wander are lost forever. By the mercy of God, even now, may your wanderer return home.
Desiring God