While I can’t say that the children’s books of Maurice Sendak are exactly a wellspring of deep spiritual insight, but in honor of his 85th birthday today (June 10th), I would like to point out that his picture book, Where the Wild Things Are (published by Harper & Row, Publishers), is a masterpiece in depicting our general attitude towards God, what we think about ourselves, and maybe a little bit of our spiritual predicament. Its pages have long reminded me of the story that Jesus told about another son (see Luke 11:15-35) also with a willful spirit, a rebellious wandering out into the wide world, and an eventual repentance and return to grace.
Max, when he “came to his senses” remembered where he belonged.
Sendak’s little tale begins with, “The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind… and another… his mother called him ‘WILD THING!’ and Max said, ‘I’LL EAT YOU UP!’ so he was sent to bed without eating anything.”
Although we loathe to admit it, there is within each of us an overwhelming impulse that passionately seeks to have its own way and, when yielded to, wreaks mischief of one kind… and another… and another. From the dawning of time when humanity first rebelled in the Garden (see Genesis 3), we have habitually exalted our own plans and ambitions above the loving directives given us by God. And so we don the wolf suit of selfishness, heedless of the implications of our defiance.
But there are great prices to pay when we choose to defy the loving plan of God. The first great tragedy of asserting our will above God’s is, of course, discordance in our relationship with Him and the breaking of our fellowship with our Creator. Our disregard for the Lord’s will and our wolfish pursuit to please ourselves disrupt His plan to enrich our lives, encourage our hearts, and envelop us with His peace and joy. Even subtle sins and passive rebellion to God’s claim to our lives as Lord contaminate our lives and make us unfit to “enter His presence.”
The second great tragedy results from the first. Having lost the immediacy of His divine presence, and bent on going our own way in the world, we are fated to find ourselves surrounded by terrors and monsters unleashed by such self-will. Fears enslave us, hatreds besiege us, pain and loss bind us as though they were great shackles forged in the heat of our pride and passions. Such woes and afflictions “roar their terrible roars, and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws.” We may have succeeded in “sassing” God, but our only reward is fearsome and awful friendship with trouble and woe. But perhaps it dawns on us that somewhere there is something better waiting for us, and just like Max in Sendak’s book, we long “to be where someone loves us best of all.”
When the willful son of Luke 15 approaches his father and begs an early withdraw on his inheritance, we can perhaps feel a little bit of the sorrow that wrenched the older man’s heart. Was that all he was to this beloved son? An easy way to a good time? The mischief wasn’t merely in the asking for the money of course. It was also partly in the son’s desire to leave the fellowship of his father’s house and to be lord and master of his own destiny. With a pocket full of cash, he could call the shots and be the big man for a change.
And so he, like Max, boards the “private boat” of his independence and sets sail through “night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.” And there this wayward son reigns for awhile, having a “wild rumpus” of his own… at least until he runs out of money. And lo and behold, he suddenly has nothing and is nothing to even those he had once called friends. He is reduced to squalor and terrible jobs that no one else will endure.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father.” (Luke 15:17-20a ESV).
We don’t necessarily have to completely hit bottom for us to come to our senses. How much easier and better would it have been if this young man had had a change of heart before he had even left his father’s house? There’s no denying that it would have been an easier road for all involved. Still, it is clear that God is perfectly willing to go to unimaginable lengths to soften our hearts to His overtures of loving acceptance. You matter that much to God. And when your heart turns towards home, He is ready and waiting to receive you!
And don’t think that getting up and going home was an easy thing to do for this prodigal son… no matter how broken he was. It wasn’t. Wild feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and worry most certainly “roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws”, yet it was the right thing to do… it was the only thing to do.
“But while he (the son) was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:20b-24 ESV).
What an incredible reunion! Instead of glowering at him from under bristling eyebrows, instead of slamming the door in his face, instead of lecturing him on how he squandered his father’s money and brought shame upon his house, the father embraced him and said, “Welcome home, son. Let’s go inside and get to know each other all over again over a nice hot meal.”
Little Max, when he also “came to his senses” remembered where he belonged. He too turned towards home and “sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him… and it was still hot.”
If your heart hasn’t yet “turned towards home”, let today be the day you also come to your senses and remember that there is a place “where someone loves you best of all,” too. That “place” is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let today be the day your heart goes home.
Copyright © Thom Mollohan
Unfurled Sails 
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