Your Arms Are Too Short

Luke 15:11-32

James Weldon Johnson wrote, “Young man, Young man – Your arms are too short to box with God.”  Johnson’s poem about the Prodigal son is more than rhyming words and a clever imagination. His words are prophetic for many today that are trying to box with God…thinking they will win. 

The Prodigal resisted and rebelled and ran away, bound for a better place in the far country.  It was a place far from home, far from his father, far from everything he’d ever known to be right.  It was a place far from God – with crowded streets, bright lights, and loud music.

Johnson writes more, “Young man, Young man - Smooth and easy is the road that leads to hell and destruction. Down grade all the way. The further you travel, the faster you go. No need to trudge and sweat and toil, just slip and slide and slip and slide, till you bang up against hell’s iron gate.”

What some describe as hitting rock bottom, the poet describes as a “bang up against hell’s iron gate.”  Either way, the pain of running out of money and friends was overwhelming for the Prodigal.  He was in a place where no one cared about him.  No one loved him.  He had walked away from everyone and everything that mattered.  What would he do?

He could go home – but it would mean admitting he was wrong.  He had failed.  How would he be received?  Would his father and family mock him?  Not his father.  Most of his family would run out to welcome him back.  But there’s an elder brother in every family who’s not willing to forgive or forget.  His father was more than eager to have his son back home.  It’s a picture of sufficient grace.

Friend, your arms are too short to box with God. Quit fighting a fight you’ll never win.  If you’ve left home – come home.  Leave the crowded streets of nameless faces and come home where you belong – where you’re loved and wanted.

Come home.  Your family has missed you.