The Prodigal Son
God's boundless mercy welcomes home every sinner who returns with a repentant heart.
The younger son demands his inheritance, squanders it in wild living, and finds himself destitute among pigs. Coming to his senses, he returns home planning to beg for servant status. But the father, seeing him from far off, runs to embrace him, restores him fully as son, and throws a feast. This parable reveals divine grace that exceeds human expectation—the Father's love that never stops watching, waiting, welcoming. The elder brother's resentment warns against self-righteousness that refuses to celebrate redemption. There is always a way home.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Henri Nouwen wrote that the father in this parable reveals 'the face of a God whose only longing is to bring his children home.'
Gospel of Luke
Written about in
- What Christianity says about humility
A son wastes his inheritance and comes home with a rehearsed apology. The father runs to him before the speech can be delivered, so the son's humility and the father's disregard for his own dignity arrive in the same moment.
- What Christianity says about starting again after a fall
The son rehearses a request for servant status; the father cuts it off with a robe and a feast. Nouwen read the parable as the face of a God whose only longing is to bring his children home. Notice what the story omits: no probation, no repayment plan, no trial period.