Fiction. This is a made-up story. The people and events are not real, and any resemblance to real people is coincidental. It is written to teach a lesson, the way Jesus taught with parables. The Bible verse at the end is quoted word for word from the King James Version, which is in the public domain.
Part of our guide: Liftoff: A guide for families and young adults · Stories & Parables.
I found out from a letter. The college sent it to the house, because I'm the one who filled out the forms two years ago. Marcus had stopped going to class in October. By December he'd been withdrawn.
He hadn't said a word. On the phone every Sunday he told me classes were "fine." He told his mother the same.
So I wrote a speech. I'm a planner. I typed it in my phone notes: the money, the lying, the trust. I practiced it in the truck on the way to work. I had a good line about how a man owns his mistakes.
He called on a Thursday and said he was coming home. He didn't say why. He didn't have to.
Saturday afternoon I was in the garage when I saw him get out of his friend's car at the end of the street. He had one duffel bag. He stood there a long time, like he was deciding whether to walk up or get back in the car.
I forgot the speech. I don't mean I decided not to give it. I mean it was just gone. What I saw was my boy, the one who used to sit on the tailgate and hand me wrenches, standing at the end of the street afraid of his own front door.
I walked down the driveway. Then I ran, which I have not done in about fifteen years. I grabbed him before he could start whatever he'd rehearsed, because I found out later he had a speech too.
We did talk about the money, and the lying. We made a plan for him to work and pay part of it back. But we talked about it at the kitchen table that night, after dinner, after his mother hugged him. Not in the driveway.
The lesson
A child who comes home ashamed already knows what he did. Welcome first; the hard talk can wait until dinner. Grace doesn't cancel consequences, but it decides the order.
This story echoes the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
Talk about it
- Whose side of this story have you been on?
- What would you have done in the same spot?
- What is one way to live this lesson out this week?
← Back to the guide · Spotted an error? Request a correction.