Before he saw him, he smelled him—stinking of pig slop, sweat, gutter slime, and fear. Yet to his father nothing on earth would ever look or smell so sweet. His boy, or what was left of him, had come home—rail thin and hog muddy, but alive. The boy’s mouth moved, stammering out his well-rehearsed speech. “Father, I know I have disgraced you. I am not worthy to be your son. Let me stay, and be one of your hired hands…”
He did not have time to finish. The father threw his arms around his shoulders, washing that grubby neck with his moist and joyful tears. He peppered his cheek with kisses. He shouted to the skies, “My son was dead, and is alive again! He was lost and now he’s found!”
The prodigal son came home. He had taken his father’s money, betrayed his trust, and lost everything in foolish living. Then he came home beaten and broken, looking for rescue and forgiveness.
We call this the story “The Prodigal Son.” However, it is really the story of the prodigal father. “Prodigal” is a word meaning, “to give in a reckless or foolish way.” Yet the boy was not the reckless giver. The father was the one who gave half his income to a boy who did not deserve it. He is the one who welcomed his broken boy home with a great and groaning feast. He is the one who forgave what most would say was unforgivable
Neither is this the story of one son, but two. The younger son was a rebellious spendthrift. The older son was a self-righteous prig. Both were equally in the wrong. Nevertheless, the love of their father was big enough to forgive them both.
This is a parable, not just a story. Jesus meant to teach us something. In this parable, the father stands for God, who loves without conditions or measure.
Nevertheless, this father was not God. Really he was just a weary old farmer with a sunburned face and calluses on his hands. He just stood in for God in the lives of his two sons.
All fathers have to do that at times. Children look at the grown-ups around them and think that God must be like them. More often than not, we fail to live up to their expectations. Even so, we all succeed sometime. For a few moments in a child’s life, every father and mother rises to the occasion, and acts like God. This was the case of the old man in the story. He may have failed a thousand days, but on this day he did well.
The Old Man had a name just like everyone else. His sons had names, too, but we will not use their actual names. They had a last name too, and before the end of this book we will reveal that name for the curious, not until the end of the book. (So if you want to know that name, you had better keep reading.)
For the purpose of the story, we will just call the boys Older and Younger, and the old farmer we will just call the Old Man.
The story in the Bible ends with a statement of the Old Man’s love and forgiveness. Jesus told us all He wanted us to know on that particular occasion. Even so, we all know that life goes on, and never ends with just one story. Where one story ends, another begins. What happened to these boys? How did they turn out? What were their children like?
This is the story Older and Younger and of their two children—Wild Child and a Good Son.
Wild Child and Good Son is available through Amazon. Com, or through the author, Billy Owen Fleming
