The verse anchor
"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
Luke 15:24 · King James Bible
The story
Jesus told this story:
There was a man who had two sons. The younger son came to him one day and said, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." So the father divided his money between his two sons.
Not many days after, the younger son gathered everything he had, and travelled into a far country. There he wasted all his money on wild living. He spent every last coin.
Then a great famine came upon that land. He had nothing to eat. He went and hired himself out to a farmer, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. He was so hungry that he would gladly have eaten the pig food, and no man gave him any.
Then he came to himself. He remembered his father. He said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
So he arose and started the long walk home. He looked terrible. His clothes were torn. His feet were bare. He was ashamed. But he kept walking.
"But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him" — the father had been watching every day, hoping — "and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
The son began to say what he had planned to say: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." But the father was already shouting to his servants: "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
One thing we learn
The son left. The father waited. The son came home. And the father — this is the beautiful part — did not walk. The father ran. That is how God feels about you. When you turn toward home, he is already running to meet you.
Memory verse
"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
Luke 15:24 · KJV
Say it three times before bed. In seven days you will know it forever.
A prayer
Father in heaven, thank you that you wait,
and thank you that you run.
Whenever I wander, bring me home.
Amen.
Beneath the story · for grown-ups
To read this whole passage in the King James Bible with your child, or to walk further with the household: