07.01.01.F. The Welcome

F. THE WELCOME

"When he was yet a great way off his father saw him." He must have been watching for him. I know our Heavenly Father is always watching for the home coming of his wandering children. When the old father recognized him he ran to meet him, embraced him and kissed him, and when the boy started to make his confession, the old father interrupted him by ordering the servants to bring the "best robe and put it on him, 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, he was lost and is found, and they began to be merry."

Such a welcome, and yet no greater than our Heavenly Father gives those who return to him. "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God and he will abundantly pardon." Thus ends the story of the prodigal son, or our conception of it, as given in the New Testament.