The other night my wife and I ran across a friend of mine who was a retired dentist and started to return to college last year. During the conversation my friend revealed the sentiments of joy and contentment as she could step into the college and fulfill her dream—being a literature major. Back to her college age, she wasn’t allowed to choose her interested major but obeyed her father and went to medical school and to be a doctor. Now that her children have grown up she could pursue her dream, which is “the second half of my life” according to my friend.

At the end of a wonderful conversation, knowing she and her husband have been in the Lord for many years I asked her, “So where do you go to church?” “I don’t go to church any more. I enjoy what I’m doing now. This is another stage in life.” She replied. Stunned and not knowing how to respond to her answer, I said, “Oh! I see.” On the way home my wife and I felt saddened and decided to pray for her.

The next morning after my kids and I prayer over some disappointing events in their school I began to pray for my friend. As I prayed my heart started crying and tears kept running down so that I couldn’t say a word. I know it was not I and the Father who cried over his daughter leaving away from home and wished her to return to the Father. Then I was reminded of the story of the Prodigal Son, particularly the time when the younger son returned home. “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). The father must’ve waited for his son’s return at the door day and night. I don’t know whether the father sent his servants to search for his young son. But it is for sure that his heart ached and his eyes kept watching. As the young son was coming a long way from his house, the father “ran to him, embraced him and kissed him” instead of rebuking him, dismissing him and even rejecting him as a son.

Our Heaven Father is full of love and compassion. Hardly did I truly fathom the depth of the love of the Father when I prayed for my friend—“the prodigal daughter of the Father.” She will return to the Father. This I believe.