Summary: Just come back to Him...

THE PRODIGAL SON

This story is based on Luke 15:11 - 32.

In a far away land, where no man had ever gone before, came Mr. Christopher Columbus and discovered it after the Indians did. Many, many years later, came to live a man named Mr. Sir, and started killing chickens, fried them, and started to sell them. Well, this chicken thing became such a great hit that he became rich and got married. He had two sons and a

beautiful daughter. His sons’ names were Jesse and Robert, and his daughter’s name was Miranda Veracruz de La Joya Cardinal, Jr. the III. Well, as time went by, his children turned into teenagers and as most rich teenagers do, they began wanting things that most people couldn’t afford, and always got what they wanted because they were selfish little punks. One time, the middle son, Jesse, got tired of his older brother, Robert, being a nag, his sister being a “fresa”, and of eating chicken for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. This guy decided he was too good for his family and rebelled. He asked his father for his part of the inheritance and decided to take off

to Houston, Texas to live and try not to remember his family again. Well, lovingly, yet hurting, his father handed him a check and Jesse took off to Houston and left his family behind, supposedly, never to be seen again. Well, after no time, he was living a good life in Houston, according to him. He

was living in every type of sinful thing you could imagine. Sure, he had the money, the girls, the friends, and everything he could want, but surely, the time came when he started getting low on cash and eventually lost everything. Now, the Bible speaks about there being friends that just pretend to be

friends in Proverbs 18:24, and that scripture became true in Jesse’s life. See, the friends and girlfriends he had were just there because he had all this money, but like a river, it has fish and living things in there while the river water is flowing, but

once the river stops receiving fresh water, and once it stops flowing, the old water stays there and there is nothing new coming in. The fish die or swim away and the river starts to stink. That’s how Jesse ended up being. Once he was moneyless, friends turned away. Girls were being disgusted instead of interested. He had gone from rich, to poor, to

poorer. Then, from poorer to poorest. (Poorest is superlative. I just thought I’d throw that in there just in case there are people checking the grammar on this.) I mean, it got to the point where the beggars would give him their spare change. He was homeless, he grew tired, sleepy, and while walking through an alley, behind a building, the guy fell asleep behind

what seemed like a restaurant. Since Jesse was asleep behind this place, he didn’t see the name of it, but there was a big little sign on the front of the restaurant that said Jesse’s Dad’s Chicken Restaurant. Now, at Church’s Chicken they would

always enforce for the customers to throw away their own trash, but since they were the competitors, they didn’t want their customers to do what the workers could do, so, they would leave the trash on the tables and the workers would clear them up for them. Well, one of the young ladies that was working there was picking up the leftovers on the tables and dumped them in the trash because she was about to throw the

trash out, but she overlooked a table and didn’t come to realize it until she went back inside. This girl, of which we are not going to mention her name is Melissa_Alba@hotmail.com from Edinburg, Texas 78539, didn’t want to have to walk all the 10 feet to reach the outside again, but seeing that she had not much to do about it, she picked up the leftover bones of the

chicken and started complaining as she was walking out. Well, since she wasn’t very happy, she made a lot of noise as she approached the trash cans and while taking the lid off the can, she woke up Jesse. He got a glimpse and quickly jumped up shouting, “Ahhh! Chicken!” Melissa_Alba@hotmail.com from Edinburg, Texas 78539 shouted, “Ahhh!” and threw the leftovers to him. The guy was so hungry that he was eating as much as he could and even swallowed some bone pieces, and, to top it off, he even swallowed part of the napkins. Okay, no, he was just very hungry. This guy was there, with his clothes all dirty and smelly ‘cause he had just had an accident and I’m not talking about smashing his toe. He was there, eating the food so vigorously, chewing like a dog. Then, he stopped and started to think to himself, “I don’t have to be doing this. My father owns a chain of chicken restaurants and here I am,

eating its leftovers.” He arose and made up his mind that he done wrong. He looked up towards heaven and asked God to forgive him for he had sinned against Him and against his father. He decided to come home, with a humbled and sorrowful heart. The next morning, his 98 year, 7 months, 13 days, 16 hours, 32 minutes, and 2 seconds old father, Mr. Sir, was cleaning his 2001 Mustang Cobra convertible with chrome rims, 15000 watt system, leather seats, C D player, and a sticker on the back that said “I don’t need children, I married

one”. He was cleaning the dashboard and as he looked through the rear view mirror, he saw a man, recognized him, and said, “Hey, that’s a good looking man. Oh, yeah, it’s me!” Then, he looked through one of the side door mirrors and saw this other guy out in the distance. It was his son, Jesse. Mr. Sir tried to

get out as fast as he could, but when he was about half way out, he accidentally bumped his head with the top of the door. I think it hurt. It was like one of those Steve Urkel episodes because right after he got out of the car completely, he stepped on the vacuum cleaner, tripped, and landed on the bucket with

soap and water he was going to use to wash the car. By the time he was free enough to look out for his son, his son was already behind him. Mr. Sir told Jesse, “Man, you ruined the whole thing! Go back so I can pretend I’m surprised to see you and that way I can hug you.” So, Jesse went back only like a

couple of hundred feet and began running towards his father. Mr. Sir received his son with open arms, hugged him, and kissed him. Jesse asked his father for forgiveness. After giving his father the whole forgive me and I’ll never do it again speech, like most teenagers do, his father looked at him with

such love in his eyes and such dampness on his shirt because of the water he fell on, and said, “I forgive you.” Then, he called Geoffrey, the butler, to call Don Juan’s to order a couple of botanas to celebrate, but Jesse asked his dad for chicken instead. As soon as Jesse’s older brother, Robert, found out what his father was going to do, he demanded to know why his

father had done that. “I have always been here, never

disobeyed you, and you’ve never even bought me a raspa from Snowball Express,” he said. Then, his father said, “Son, your brother has realized he has done wrong and accepted it, and yet, acted upon it, for it is better for someone to realize they did wrong and accept it and correct it, than to not accept it and

leave it as it is. Besides, Snowball Express doesn’t even exist yet. Come on, I’ll buy you a car.” His son was like, “Okay!"

See, there was a man who had his son’s inheritance given to him and he, too, took off. In those days, the Bible days and it’s laws, what he did was called messing up the family’s name. He ended up feeding pigs and eating the leftovers of the pigs. Now, that was considered the lowest of the lowest. That young

man, though, did come back to his father and the fattest calf was killed to have a feast in his honor for his return. His older brother, too, caused a commotion, but his father explained the reason, for there is a banquet in heaven with the angels when a

sinner repents or a prodigal returns to Christ. The drinking, smoking, cussing, pre - marital sex, cursing, homosexuality, stealing, killing, hating, and all sorts of deeds are erased. No matter how bad the sin has been, as soon as you come to God and ask Him to forgive you with a humbled and sorrowful heart, they are all gone. Jesus is always there waiting for you, prodigal son, to come back. The same way this young man came back, He awaits for you to do so. There is a saying that states “Better late then never”. Well, in this case, come now before it is too late. You have probably been in the pits of sin,

yet, Jesus says He will forgive you and never remember what you have done. He will never rub it in your face. It worked for Jesse, the prodigal son, and well, let’s just substitute his name with mine, or yours. His promise is always there and my God isn’t a man to lie, nor son of man to go back on His Word. There is just one thing Jesus is saying to you today, “Come home My Son...” Hold on to His promise because He will never fail: “For when you come to Christ, you are a new creature; the old things have passed on, yet, you are

now new...”

II Corinthians 5:17