The family of the son who left isn't alone
Lifeway Research offers three ways to give biblical hope to parents waiting for a child who left.
In a Lifeway Research article, the question is uncomfortable: how do you love the family of the son who left? The text proposes three paths of biblical hope and practical help for those parents.
The freedom they sold you
Cutting ties is sold as maturity. Blocking a number feels like victory. But a home without bonds isn't free land; many times it's an empty room with good music. The Bible doesn't romanticize running away: the son in Luke 15 left far behind and ended up craving the pigs' food.
I write this without scolding. Some leave because there was harm at home, and that isn't healed by a verse read at the table. But the answer to pain isn't to cut everything off: it's to rebuild bonds with truth, with boundaries, and with help.
«God doesn't wait sitting down: He goes out to seek the one who left and also the one who stayed.»
God doesn't wait sitting down
In the parable, the father doesn't wait still for his son to mature. "And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20, ESV).
God doesn't wait sitting down: He goes out to seek the one who left and also the one who stayed. The same father goes out to plead with the older son, who is outside, angry (see Luke 15:28). Both are far away; the father goes after both.
That is the hope no culture can offer: not a son who returns out of guilt, but a Father who keeps going out.
Isaiah compares God's love to a mother's and falls short: even if she forgets, God does not forget (see Isaiah 49:15). And the psalm says it without embellishment: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18, ESV).
Walking alongside without recipes
Lifeway Research gets it right by looking at the family and not just the one who left. The pain of those who stay is also a grief, and many times no one names it. In the church, that house becomes silence: no one asks, for fear of hurting.
What I would nuance is the rush to find methods. There is no technique that guarantees a child's return. The parable ends open on purpose: the father loves, and the older son still decides. Walking alongside means staying, praying, and not handing out diagnoses about someone else's parenting. "They must have done something wrong" is the cheapest and cruelest advice.
When the son returns, the family needs more than a speech. The father in Luke 15 didn't give him a sermon: he hugged him and threw a party, even though the older brother got upset. The church can do the same: receive without shaming and celebrate without triumphalism.
If you know a mom who checks her phone with no reply, this week you can send her a short message and stay with her. You don't need to explain her pain or fix it. God doesn't ask you to pretend it doesn't hurt; He holds you while you wait. Who will you walk alongside this week without giving them a sermon?
