The story of the prodigal son is one of Jesus’ most beloved parables. It gives us hope for our broken families and wayward loved ones, because we all know a prodigal. This story brings to mind a face, a name. And perhaps our personal heartache for the prodigals we know is why we often react so harshly toward the resentful older brother.
But what if, instead of sulking in bitterness, the older brother, seeing how much his younger brother’s rebellion and absence grieved his father, set out to search for him? What if the older son scooped his little brother out of the mud and carried him home?
Sign up to receive the Daily Prayer Watch in your email inbox each month:
SubscribeIt’s interesting to imagine the story this way because this is what Jesus did for us. He left our Father’s side to find us in the gutters, prisons, and pigpens where the consequences of our sin landed us. He picked us up, paid our debts, and carried us home. And now, he sends us out to tell our little brothers and sisters, “Our Father says, ‘Come home.’”
The story of the prodigal son is part of a set of parables; Jesus tells it after he tells the story of the woman searching for her lost coin and the shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep for one lost lamb.
Jesus calls us to seek out the lost with the urgency of a family searching for a lost child and with the love of our Savior who stepped into the grave, into death itself, to find us. We should “go and tell” as though every person we find in prisons, slums, addiction, or hopelessness is our little brother or our little sister. We should run to the hurting like a father running to his own child. It should be personal.
When you support Every Home teams through your prayers and gifts, you equip a believer to personally reach hurting, prodigal hearts with the love of Jesus. You don’t just send a message; you send a person with a face full of compassion and hands that can embrace.
