The Prodigal Son...Retold.
Dedicated to Canaan Youth Chapel of Glenview, Illinois
"And he said, "There was a man who had two sons..." Luke 15:11
There once was a family who lived in the Midwest, not quite in Chicago, but north of it, let us say. The father had an older daughter and a younger son and they were, for a while, a happy family. One day, the mother cooked up an amazing meal that, while was cholesterol free, was full of saturated fats. The family ate it, believing that the mother outdid herself this time. However, the father started to feel a pain and a discomfort at his chest. Before anyone in the family knew, the father screamed, "ARRGH! THERE'S A POLISH SAUSAGE STUCK IN MY ARTERY!" Naturally, the family panicked and called for 911 while giving the father aspirin to relieve the pain. After the father was shipped off to the hospital, the daughter and mother worried that he would pass away. The son, however, realized that had the father died, he could have been a rich man and would have written off the "school business" as he called it. When the family visited the father, both the mother and daughter gushed over how they were worried about him and whether he passed away. When the mother and daughter were waiting outside of the hospital room he was in, the son came into the room, and asked, "Hey dad, couldn't you give me the money now? I mean, I know the tragedy and all, but I would like to have the money now and get out of here." Naturally, the father was angry at the whole reception, but though he fumed and moped, he decided that he'd give the son the money.
Soon, the son had all the money in the new account that the father opened solely for the son, from the money that was from his will. The last thing that the father gave to the son, while the mother wept and the daughter comforted the mother, was a small slip of paper. "Here," said the father, "take this slip of paper, and whatever you do, do not lose it. You'll know when to read it."
The son had the impulse to say, "Whatever," but the son held it back and received the paper in silence. The father opened his hand out, though the son simply nodded his head at the father, and with that, took a cab to go live the high life in Tokyo. There, he bought the fastest cars. There, he became popular to the point that some of the higher-ranked officials in Japan took notice of him. And he used up his money on the latest video games there was to offer and the best sake there was in the city of Tokyo. Presently, however, he soon ran out of money at a time when a depression hit Japan. Soon, his "friends" started to shun him, seeing him in that state, and almost all refused to help him. The only one who did was a friend who gave him the job of throwing out the trash. Throughout the job he longed just to eat some of the garbage that the people threw out, just to have another morsel of a rice cake or something. And during that time, he would sleep on the cardboard flats, shivering in the rain or steaming in the heat.
He soon started to think of his ordeal. He thought of his family, and of the food they have. He remembered the fact that though their family wasn't the richest, they are much more well off than other families. He started to reflect on what his parents were eating, and what his sister was having. He longed to have the comforts of home. But he said to himself, "This is the life, this is the life, this is the..."
Presently, his last friend came to him and talked to him, asking what his life was like before he came to Tokyo. The son started to rant and rave, saying that the parents were not so great, that his sister was a know-it-all and pretentious. After a pause, he started to apologize and said that his family was not like that, but that he was far worse than them. After the friend gave him some food that the friend's wife prepared, he left the son.
Slowly, as the days passed by, the son started to come to his senses. He realized that what he was doing was foolish and wrong. He wanted to go back home. He then looked into the slip of paper that his father gave him. Two words were written on them, a plea. It read only simply this: "Come home."
By the time he made up his mind, the son had enough money to get him to an airport from where he left. As he came closer to Illinois, he reviewed in his mind what he was going to say to his father.
'Father, I'm sorry for leaving you. I have wronged not only you, but also God above. Make me like one of your assistants in your business'
As he was leaving the plane, with all the people milling about, his father, who waited for him ever since he left saw the son shuffling his feet. While the son slowly made his way to the entrance, the father called out the son's name and started to run to the son. The son saw his eyes, and a thousand things raced through his mind. But even though the son wanted to run away, he held his ground, waiting for the judgement that he deserved. He started to say, "Father, I'm sorry for what I have done. I have wronged against you and against heaven." The father did not listen to the son. Instead, he embraced his son, pulled himself out at arms length, looking at the son breifly, and then pulling the son by the arms and dragging him to a car. The father then drove him home and with the help of his assistant, he washed and clothed his son and announced, "Let us celebrate for my son was dead and now is alive!"
Presently, the daughter, who was coming back from Princeton University, learned that her brother was alive and there was much celebration in the house. The daughter was miffed. She thought, "That no good slob is the cause of this celebration? I refuse to join!" and so she told her parents that she would stay with her friends. Presently, the father came and spoke to her, asking her that she would come back.
"Why should I?" she sniffed, "I managed to get into Princeton, I managed to secure the Rhodes Scholar Award, and despite my obedience and my achievements, you would not even let me celebrate. How is it that you would celebrate for your disrespectful son, who most likely squandered your wealth, YOUR WEALTH, with the low lives and dregs of society, no doubt visiting the houses of other women?"
The father replied, "My daughter, all that I have is yours as well and you will be with me always. I ask that you come because my son, your brother, was once lost and now is found. He was dead and now is alive."