This is one of my top three favorite stories in the Bible for numerous reasons. It portrays the very essence of the gospel. God leaving the 99 to get the one. God forgiving the unforgivable. God restoring the family unit as it should be. The story truly encompasses the nature of God and the compassion he continuously displays to his people.

Now, I know a lot of preachers speak on the prodigal son being a redemption story and that it is. But I think there are two stories here and one we tend to overlook.

Being faithful doesn't always mean being favorite. In other words, faithfulness won't always get human attention, but there is Godly reward. Faithfulness is a motive of heart, not desire of appreciation. The other son was angry and with good reason. This kid asked for an inheritance, spent it all, and then comes back, and you welcome him? Meanwhile, I have been faithful to what you have asked of me and have done it for years without transgressing against you. But how selfish and naive was the other to not recognize the protection in the covering? He didn't have to go through what the other son did, he was shielded from the world because he stayed within the love of his father.

Sometimes we forget to praise God for the things he protected and saved us from. The trials we didn't have to go through, the hardship we didn't have to face.

The last thing I drew from this story is how we treat the lost son. How we love the ones He loves. How we should love what the Father loves. I have been on the wrong end of this story, I have been guilty of not welcoming back those who have wandered. Like I forgot that it was his same saving grace that chased me down. Let us not be so religiously stuck that we forget that there, too, was a time we needed to be saved. That the same blood that ran down Christ's cheek for you ran for them, too.

Now the story doesn't say this. But the brother not being at the party, the prodigal son must have noticed. You are supposed to celebrate with those who have come back. People notice when you don't celebrate with them. It doesn't make you religious or morally sound, it makes you a hater. Continue to be faithful, the son said to his father. I have been faithful for years, he says to the son, everything I have is yours. Not only did he still have inheritance, but he has everything the father does. There are benefits in being faithful. Stay close to him and you'll want for nothing depart from and you might find yourself eating with the pigs.