This parable teaches us about the love of our heavenly Father.

Sometimes we can be like the younger son. No, you probably will not ask your dad for a lot of money and then run away from home and waste it all. But sometimes we want to ignore all the blessings that God gives us and go and do our own thing. The Lord has told us to stay far away from sin, but sometimes we actually want to sin, just like the younger son did. Do you ever want to ignore God? Maybe you want to disobey your parents, maybe you are nasty to your siblings, or maybe you look at wrong pictures.

But after the younger son had been gone for a while and was left with nothing at all, not even enough food, he realized how foolish he had been. And he remembered how loving his father was. And so, he returned home, ready to tell his dad how sorry he was because of his sins.

His dad welcomes him with tears of joy. He is so happy to see his son come home. And the Lord is like that to us. If we go to him in humbleness, sorry for our sins, he will always welcome us. He will always forgive our sins. No sin is so great that God will not forgive it.

But, sometimes we can also be like the older son. The older son thought that he was good because he had obeyed all his dad’s commands. He had stayed home and worked hard. We can be like that if we think that God should love us because we do good things.

But we see the father’s love for him too. His dad did not send him away, but instead reminded him that he had always loved him. And in the same way, God always shows love to us, also when we sometimes forget this and think that we are so good from ourselves.

Just like the dad in the story shows grace and love to both sons, so God shows grace and love to us!

Reflection with your child:

If you act like the older or the younger son, what should you do? How will God respond?