The Prodigal

I wandered far away from the life source…

Dark days and nights I’ve lived, sin kept me from the light…

Ashamed, forgotten, invisible without sight…

Somehow, someway, someone must have prayed…

I cried alone, for years ago, I lost my way!

Broken, Oh so broken, how could I ever return…

The guilt and the shame, life never the same as everyone I knew had spurned,

This lifeless person I became.

Dirty, filthy, afraid and misunderstood…

I could never go home, to what My mother had taught me was good!

Then something incredible happened, I was lying in my own vomit

Down for the count…no way out…

An old woman found me…

“Honey, Jesus loves you will you come back to him?”

My eyes filled with tears and regret, sorry for the life I had lived…

She lifted my head and anointed me with oil, and said,

“Repeat after me…

I am a sinner saved by grace, come home my lovely one, there is no disgrace…

You are washed in the blood of the Lamb!!”

I stood up and shouted, “Yes! I am!!!”

She took me home and fed me well, clothed me in her best attire…

Out of the grime and cesspool of life, no longer wallowing in the dust and the mire…

Cleaned me up and set my feet on solid ground…

No longer a prodigal, no longer lost, I am forever found!

Serving Jesus, and finding all those, who are shattered, lost and bound!

Jesus loves me, this I know…come home dear ones leave shanty town…

And join God’s family, in the heavenly realm…

You too, can be washed in the blood of the Lamb!!

~Marla Shaw O’Neill July 21, 2024

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

¹¹ And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. ¹³ Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ¹⁴ And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to^[a] one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’^[b] 22 But the father said to his servants,^[c] ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³ And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴ For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:11-32 English Standard Version