Prodigality

I think I first heard this story in the movie version of Chaim Potok's The Chosen. There is was told in the context of the struggle between a young Hasidic Jew and his father, a revered rabbi. It was told as a traditional Hasidic tale, and perhaps it is. At any rate, it speaks powerfully of the difference between God's ways and ours.

The story goes that a king and his son had become estranged, and the son had moved far far away to a distant land. For many years there was no communication between them.
After a long period, however, the father sent a message asking his son to return home.
The son was at a distance of a hundred-day journey from his father.
His friends pleaded waith him, “Return to your father.”
But with tears in his eyes, the son said to them, “I can’t. The way is too far.”
The king sent a second message: "Meet me halfway, and I will meet you halfway."
Again the son sadly responded, "I can't. The way is still too far."
Then the father sent a third message: “My son, go as far as you’re able, and I’ll come the rest of the way to you.”

PS -- Once I posted something here and a reader thought I was trying to send her a message. So this is not a message for any one person. It is just a story I find worth pondering myself and that I wanted to share.