“Following the death of my father, I had the unenviable task we all eventually face of sorting through our parents’ remaining earthly possessions and disposing of them.  Among the items I wanted to keep were the usual personal jewelry items and accessories, family photos, and so forth.  I also decided to keep one article of clothing that was worn by my father: a green, corduroy housecoat with a thin gold border.  My father wore it often in the final months of his life.  The first time I put it on, when I got up in the morning, was just seven days after the death of my father.  The housecoat quickly warmed me and brought back a flood of memories of good times with my father.  I was comforted by it and allowed myself to imagine that I was in the strong and loving embrace of my father.  I plan to wear my father’s housecoat till I wear it out.”

These words of a loving son for his father remind me of another son and his father in the story that Jesus told that is often called, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” in Luke 15:11-24.  Please take the time to read (or re-read) that story.

After the prodigal had wasted his father’s inheritance in riotous living and ended up in the pigpen, he thought of home.  He thought of how well his father’s servants fared under his care.  He determined that he would go back home and ask his father if he would take him back, at least as one of his servants.  He prepared his plea.

“And he arose and came to his father.  But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.  And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’  And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).

I’ve read that the robe was a symbol of sonship.  The father welcomed the prodigal back, not as a servant, but as his son.  Notice that the robe came after the embrace.  I picture the father scouring the horizon daily, looking and longing for his son to return.  And when the day came that he finally saw his son coming home, he ran to meet him and embraced him as his son who was lost but had been found.

Perhaps by wearing the robe, the son would also be continually reminded of the embrace of his loving, forgiving father – just like wearing that green, corduroy housecoat with a thin gold border signifies to another son the embrace of his loving father.

And this robe won’t ever wear out; it will last for an eternity.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).