The Father’s Day message delivered in Bugembe Prison was
taken from the same Prodigal Son story as delivered at Buwenge Blue. But this
time the room full of men came to understand that the selfish, greedy,
power-hungry son who thought he knew how to do life better alone than with his
dad was forgiven when he returned to his father’s house. Not only was he
forgiven but his father came running to welcome him home. I tried to help these
guys imagine what that would be like for them.
I asked them to think about the worst thing they’d ever
done, maybe that thing is why they are in prison now…maybe not. I asked them to
imagine going to tell God they were sorry, they already knew in their heart
they were sorry but now they had to go apologize. I wonder if imagining such a
thing is very close to actually doing it in this case because God is ever
present. Anyhow, I asked these broken men to imagine that before they even
arrived at His estate (for certainly God lives on a very large estate), before
they even had to get up the courage to speak a word, He came running at them.
He came running and wrapped his arms around them and welcomed them home. Not a
word spoken but all the love of the Father enveloping them both.
That’s what will happen, a lot like the story of the
Prodigal Son. These men could hardly believe such a wonderful reunion could be
possible.