Child of the King (Father’s Day 2014)
Child Of the King (Father’s Day 2014)
(By Ben Fronczek)
Open: A story is told of a little boy named William, (or Billy as most knew him) who was a orphan child that lived and survived on his own on streets of a large city. No one knew what happened to his parents, there were only whispers and rumors about them. Even at a very young age, Billy learned to do what he had to do to survive. His clothes were not much more than rags, and he learned what restaurants had the best food in their garbage cans. He even found rest and comfort sleeping between beams under a certain bridge. And in His little mind, all seems well with the world.
One day as he was hanging around out on the streets, he notice a man staring at him. He had seen him a number of times before and he always caught him looking at him with a concerned look. This time was different. This time the man came walking towards him and sat down right beside him on the step that he was sitting on. He noticed that the man was dressed very nice, he was well groomed, he even noticed that he smelled good when sat down beside him. The only thing that Billy thought that was a bit unusual was how he seem to conceal his face a bit with his high collar.
He asked, “What is your name young man?”
“William, but everyone calls me Billy”, he responded with a cheerful note in his voice.
“I like the name William”, the man responded. “It sounds, dignified”. Billy liked this guy already. He not only looked nice, and smelled nice, what he said also made him feel good.
The man asked, “How old are you Master William?
And Billy responded with a smile saying, “I think I am about ten.” He had never had anyone call him ‘Master William’ before. He kinda liked it. It made him feel important.
The man softly asked, “William, do you have any parents, and if not who do you live with”?
With down cast eyes Billy responded by saying, “I don’t know if I have any parents. If I do, I don’t know who they are or where they are. I sort of been passed around from one old street lady to another. They took care of me until the last one got sick and they took her away to the city clinic. I’ve been on my own since then”.
“Then where do you live William”.
And Billy with an excited tone in his voice responded, “Do you want to see”? He had never had any guest come to his place before.
He grabbed the man by the hand and started leading him off. He said, “Come on, its not that far”.
After going down a few side streets and down an alley or two, they came to the underside of a bridge. Billy scurried over to where the beams of the bridge meet the concrete on the ground. And nestled up under the bridge he had place a number of boards on the beams to make a shelter, or what many kids would have considered a fort.
“This is home sweet home”, he said proud as a peacock.
“This is where you sleep at night”, the man said with a look of concern on his face?
“Yea isn’t it neat, I made it myself” responding with a bit of pride in his voice. “The sound of the hooves and carriages going across the bridge at night help me fall to sleep at night”.
After they talked a bit more the man took Billy to get something to eat at a diner close by. And after Billy finished his sandwich, the man with a gentle smile told Billy that he was sincerely concerned for him. He admitted that he saw him around the neighborhood more than once and that he had even asked some of the locals about him and how they all said that he was a nice boy and polite to all.
He then in turn asked, “Billy, have you ever dreamed about living in a nice home, with a new mom and dad, and all the nice things that life can offered”?
Billy responded by saying, “Sure, what street kid hasn’t? But who is going to take a dirty little kid like me in, someone like you”?
“As a matter of fact,” the man said, ”that is exactly what I would like to do”. And then the gentle man proceeded to tell Billy how much he and his wife wanted to have children of their own, but that they were unable. He also told him he really wanted to adopt a polite young boy to share his home and life with.
And then he turned to Billy, and softly took him by the hand and asked, “William, would you like to come and live with me and my wife in our home. I will adopt you as my son, and I will become your new dad, and all that I have will be yours?”
Stunned and then with small tears in his eyes the skinny frame of the boy reached out and clung to the man and responded by saying, “I’d be crazy not too. Besides I like the way you smell. Can I call you daddy?”
Having joy move his heart by this boy he responded, “yes” with a smile. He told Billy to leave all his belongings behind, he would not need anything because he would get all new clothes, and anything else he wanted.
As the two walked hand in hand down the street and rounded the corner, the boy could not help but notice a magnificent carriage, with 2 stunning black horses set with elaborate gold embossed harnesses and reins. And when the man picked Billy up and put him in the seat the thrill of awe almost took his breath away.
He turned to his new dad and asked, “Is this yours”? And His new dad nodded yes, with a smile.
And so Billy responded by saying, “You must be rich or something”.
As they moved from street to street Billy noticed that they were moving into the nicer part of the city and he wondered what kind of home his new dad and mom lived in. After much twisting and turning thru the streets, they found themselves heading for the small rear gate in the royal palace.
Billy asked, “Daddy, where are you going, that is the royal palace. This is where the king lives.”
To which his new father responded, “You are right, and it is also the new home of the king’s new son, Prince William.”
“You are the king”, Billy asked with wide eyes.
“Yes, and now you are my son.”
As you could imagine Billy was given more than he could have ever imagined; beautiful clothes, respect, the best of food, servants, an awesome bedroom, parent that truly loved him, and all the blessings that come with being the king’s son. It was more than any orphan boy could ever dream. It was like he was living in some kind of a fairytale.
But one day not to long after, no one could find Prince William. It was as if he just disappeared from the palace. And after a diligent search one of the servants said that he saw a little beggar boy leaving the palace wearing scruffy old rags for cloths. And when Billy’s trusted servant investigated further, he found Billy back under the bridge, sleeping in his old dwelling on a pile of straw with part of a loaf of bread that he had pulled from a garbage can.
When asked why he left the palace and returned to that place, Billy responded by saying that he did not think that he deserved to be live in such a beautiful palace, and enjoy all those gifts and the king favor, because he was just a beggar boy.
And to that the servant responded, “No, you are no longer that little beggar boy. By the kings own decree you are now a child of the king, you are his son, you are a prince. And even though you may have troubles and heartaches in this life, you will forever be his son. And all the blessings that come with being the king’s son will be there for you as well. Whether you take advantage of the blessing and opportunities, well, that’s up to you. Either way, you are still a child of the king now and forever more. (Author unknown)
Sometimes I wonder if we are more like this little boy than we realize. I can’t help wonder if we forget what Father God has done for us, or is it that we feel guilty like we don’t deserve what He makes available to us now that He has taken us in as His own. Or it’s maybe a little of both?
Jesus referred to the all powerful God as “My Father” 53 times in the Gospels. He also called God “Our Father” some 21 times. Jesus also calls God “your Father” 21 times in the Gospels as well! So, Jesus clearly shows us that those of us who are Christians share the same relationship with almighty God as He Himself does. He is our Father, abba father, or dad.
In Ephesians Paul tried to get those early Christian to open their mind up to this reality as well, in chapter 1 he writes, “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. In Christ, He chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault. And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased Him to do it. 6 And this brings praise to God because of His wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves. “ ERV
The wonderful thing or big deal about being a Christian is not the fact that we put our faith in and accepted God into our life, rather, I believe the most wonderful and amazing thing is the fact that even before the world was made God, the supreme being over all creation, wanted to adopt us and become our spiritual Father, our eternal, heavenly dad. Not because He had to, or felt obligated to because He created us, but rather, like the king in our story, He chose to make us His sons and daughters because He wanted to. It was something He wanted to do because it pleased Him to do it. And, I’m sure, like the king who adopted Billy, He was filled with joy and loved us so very much because we wanted to become His child.
Like Billy, all too often we seem to forget this and who we are now, and the blessings that our heavenly Dad wants to pour out on us if we would only let Him. Either that or we don’t feel that we are worthy, or we feel guilty about our past life, and so we find our self holding back something of our self, or we just go back to some of things we did before. Maybe we just don’t understand who we are now or the Father’s love for us.
We are born again, yet rather than accepting that fact and maturing and growing up in His grace some of us go back to where we were before, just like Billy. Rather than renewing our mind and feeding it rich spiritual food some of us choose the garbage of the world to feed on.
Rather than clothing our self with Jesus we, we return to and put our old filthy ways back on our self. Rather than living like a child of God who belongs in the kingdom some of us return to live in the world and live like it’s resident do.
Jesus tried to explain the love of God, the Father’s love for us in His parable of the prodigal son. Most of know that story which is recorded in Luke 15:11-31. It is the story of the wayward son who asks for his inheritance even before his father dies. He then leaves his father’s home and goes off to another land where trades all that wealth for a worldly, wild, and ungodly lifestyle that only the world could give.
Eventually he runs out of money and in desperation he gets a job slopping pigs where he finally comes to his senses and decides to return home to his father.
In that parable we read that even before this young man got home his dad was seemingly outside waiting and looking for his lost son. And when he saw him we read that he ran to greet and hug his boy. He also showers him with gifts and has a party because he returned.
Maybe what we don’t realize is how moved the father was to see his son return. This father portrayed in the parable does not appear to be a simple or common man, but rather, someone who was quite successful in his old age. Individuals like this did not normally run anywhere unless they really had to. If you can just imagine, he probably would have had to pull up a long dress like robe to run, which would have been very undignified for a man of his stature and age… But it did not matter. It did not matter if he appeared undignified or not, he loved his son and was willing to do anything to show his love to him. That’s the image of our Father God that Jesus wanted to show us.
By telling that story, Jesus wanted to show you and me how much God loves his children that return to Him.
The king did not owe Billy his love, nor did he somehow deserve it. The wayward, prodigal son did not deserve his father’s love.
And likewise, Father God does not owe us anything, and we certainly don’t deserve His love either…. But He loves us anyway, why? Because He wants to. No other reason. It’s simply His choice.
So I say this Father’s Day, just say thank you, ‘Thank you for loving me Father God, thank you so much for making me your son! (or daughter)’… and then just accept and enjoy that love.
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
All comments can be emailed to: bfronzek@gmail.com