by

CW1: Prodigal: The Lonely Search

This is the story of a boy who was lost. He didn’t really want to be found, either. We don’t know his name, we don’t know very much of anything about him; except that he was lost. But those who are lost do not remain so forever, and this story has a happy ending. It all began in Israel…
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He just needed some time to find himself, and mourn the death of his mother.
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Love is patient, love is kind…
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At least, that’s what he said to convince his father to let him go. It took some serious convincing, but he looked so much like his mother, and his father never had been able to deny her anything. He had loved her so much. They had all loved her so much. All he had to do was look at his father with that look of mute reproach in his, her dark eyes, and his father would give in helplessly as he stared at his second son, the boy with darkness covering his heart.
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… it always protects, always trusts, always perseveres…
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He took the money and left, stamping out the feelings that told him to stay with his loved ones, his family, ignoring with some difficulty the horrible, betrayed look on his older brother’s face. Determined to go where no one knew him, he walked far, as people recognized him and called out greetings from the fields, sending their condolences to his family. Smiling thinly, he would greet them, and walked on.

… but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears…

When he came to Machtereth, he stayed for a few weeks. It was a beautiful place. The sun shone bright, there were friendly people, and laughing children. He could feel his soul start to heal when he spent time with them, helping them, watching them live their happy lives. He could not bear that happiness yet, and so he walked on.

… if I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Darash was a little better, although he couldn’t say why. Maybe it was something about the dark emptiness of the rock flats at night, the vast expanses of stars stretching across the sky, the agelessness of the sea. This place made his heart hurt, and pain was better than healing. After a while though, the pain became a sort of healing, and then he walked on.

Love never fails.

He met her in Chephes, the girl with the laughing eyes and the soft hair. She made him smile, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had honestly been able to smile. Her name was Mazal, and she was beautiful. The night that she told him she loved him, he swallowed hard, and found himself asking thickly, “Why?” She looked at him, an indescribable emotion shining in her eyes, and answered, “Because you’re you.” Unable to say it back, feeling that a creature as vile as himself was incapable of love, he simply touched her hair, and looked away. The next day, he took her hands and promised her with all of his heart that he would be back for her, before he walked on.

For now we see only a reflection, as if in a mirror. But then we shall see face to face.

When the famine struck, he was recovering from an illness he had contracted in Baqar, a poor village very near his father’s home. His money was all but gone, and he was in no condition to get good work. Forced to get a job caring for swine, a race of animal deemed unclean by his religion, he was sure that he could sink no lower. On a night when his hunger was all that he could feel, when thoughts of Mazal and his dead mother could no longer distract him, he finally found what he was looking for. In one split second, his entire world changed, and he knew what he had to do. Leaving the swine, and Baqar, he walked homeward.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it keeps no record of wrongs.

He returned to his father, begging for his forgiveness, praying for a second chance. His father hugged him, and looked at him with the same indescribable emotion on his face that Mazal had that one night in Chephes, saying, “My son was dead, but now he is alive again. He was lost, but now he is found. Yahweh be praised.”

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

There would be time, in the future, to find Mazal, and tell her that he had realized, of course, he loved her too. There would be time, to thank the people of Machtereth for their happiness, and Darash for their peace, and help the poor of Baqar. Right now, the Prodigal had finally come home.

And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

End of Story Notes:

All town names are translated from Hebrew words meaning ‘search’.

Mazal means ‘the secret part of the soul’ in some Hebrew translations.

The italicized words are Bible verses, from 1 Corinthians 13.