101 Fatted Calf

With one word meaning changes drastically. While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. He was filled with tender love for his son. He ran to him. He threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The father, upon the return of his lost son ran out with joy and relief. He said bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.

If we were to substitute the word “the” with “a”, how would it change? I have fatted a calf before. It takes work. It takes continual feeding, the best of the grains or crops. It takes a pen to be built to contain the critter. It takes water which must be carried or fed into the pen in some way. It takes protection from wild animals. In most senses of the word, it takes intentionality and extra effort to make a calf fatted. How the father and the oldest son refer to it seems to imply this. It likely was a calf they saw every day, and had been preparing for a certain amount of time. It is amazing to think of God’s effort for us, that while we were still apart from him. Living wildly like this prodigal son. He was preparing a celebration. He was feeding this fatted calf, lugging buckets of water to the pen, looking forward to the day of the return of his son. God knows who will return to him and who will not. His heart grieves for those who will not, but also by some miraculous grace, He patiently waits for those who are yet wasting their lives on wild and worldly living, while He quietly puts pieces in motion to draw them gently back to Him. Even in this patient waiting, He is preparing THE fatted calf for that celebration.