The Prodigal Son ~ by Lynette Chambers
Today I was thinking about the time years ago when we lived in Joplin, Missouri.
Late one night, Jim was unable to sleep and got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water. He saw a person across the street at the back of the church where we were pastoring, and it appeared they were looking in the church windows. Jim stepped out the back door of our home and went across the street to find out what was going on.
It turned out that it was a young man about 19 years old who had walked all the way from up somewhere in Illinois to southern Missouri. He had gone to visit his brother at his college only to find that the brother was gone on a trip with the school. The young man had no choice but to return home. He had no place to stay and very little money. So, he was walking, trying to get home to his parent’s place in Oklahoma.
He remembered that his mother had always told him, if you ever get stranded, go find a church and the pastor will surely help you. . . seeing a light on in our day care area, he had looked in, trying to see if someone might be in there working late. He told us later that he was so hungry and tired that he would have done almost anything for a bit of food and a place to lay down and rest.
That night (early morning) we brought him into our home. We soon found that his shoes were torn and had holes in the bottoms, his feet were blistered and bleeding. He was dirty and hungry. We gave him permission to shower and clean up, bathed his feet in Epsom salts and bandaged them. We fed him a warm meal, and put our son Joey on the couch, giving the young man our son’s little bed to sleep the rest of the night in. The next morning, close to noon actually, when he finally woke, Jim took him and bought him a new pair of shoes and a bus ticket the rest of the way home.
About a week later we received a beautiful letter from his mother thanking us for helping her son in a desperate time. She remarked on what a blessing we had been to her son and her family.
I’ve often thought of the blessing my family received; We were the ones privileged to do this thing. .
And the King shall answer and say unto them, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40 (KJV)