I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 30th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of Luke 15:13:

“And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”

I want to say to you today, we must not keep the eagle in a cage. You say, “What has that got to do with the Prodigal Son?” I will tell you in a minute. You know, in South Africa, we have a mighty, mighty eagle. He is called the Lammergeier. He lives on his own up in the far reaches, in those craggy mountain tops in the mighty Drakensberg Range of South Africa. He is called the bearded vulture. He is a solitary bird. He must have a wingspan of, I don’t know, maybe 2 metres. You can’t put him in a cage. If you put him in a cage he will die. He was never designed by God to be sitting in a cage and fed everyday. He needs to be released, he needs to catch the wind thermal to fly up into the high reaches of the mountain. He is a creation of God. We need to let him go, if we don’t he will die. 

Now, I have just read the scripture of the Prodigal Son who came to his father. He said, “I want my portion of my inheritance.” His father didn’t say, “No, you can’t”. He let him go. He knew what was going to happen. I have a picture of that father sitting on the verandah, on the porch of his farmhouse with a long straight road going straight down to the gate, maybe half a kilometre, and every night that father sits there as the sun goes down and waits for his son to come back home, and his son just does not come home, but he doesn’t run after his son, he doesn’t try and put him in a cage. What does he do? He prays, and I am not just talking about men, I am talking about women too. We pray for them. We pray, night and day, and they will come back.

So what do we have to do? Pray and keep the door open, obviously on our conditions, and one day you will see somebody staggering through the gate, right as the sun goes down. The father stands up, he throws his hat off, he starts running down the road and he meets his son on the road, he meets his daughter and they start to weep, and from that day onwards, there is freedom. John 8:36:

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

The eagle will come back if you let it go. He will come back home. Folks, today continue to pray for that prodigal, and they will return. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.