Prodigal Son

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*Photos from the Mikesell family photo album*

 

THE PRODIGAL SON

By Ernest O. Mikesell (This is a true story that took place when Ernie was about nine years old)

Once when I was a little boy, I don't remember just how old, maybe eight or nine years, I had cut my finger. It was too small to hurt, but large enough for me to make a fuss over. My mother thought a little something to prevent infection was needed and brought in the bottle of Iodine. Well Iodine can   sting just a little you know, and that was enough for me. Here I was with a sore just about to kill me and she wanted to make it hurt worse than ever. I just knew I couldn't stand it, and I said, "No! I won't let you put Iodine on my finger." My mother said, "A little sting now is better than a big hurt later, so put your finger out and we will get it over with." "No! I don't want Iodine on my finger and if you try to make me I'll run away and never come back." And out the door I ran.

Well, I walked and walked all afternoon and thought to myself, "I'll go to Aunt Della's house and live there," but Aunt Della wasn't home and by this time I was getting hungry and it was getting dark. "I know what I'll do, I'll go home and while everyone is in the living room, I'll sneak in and get something to eat and take it up in the loft of the barn and eat it and I'll sleep there too." This was a great idea, so I hurried back home again. I slipped in through the back gate and up to the kitchen door, but the door was locked. "Oh, what do I do now?" I sat down on the steps to think this out. "What if I have to stay out here all night, and without lunch and without dinner and maybe without breakfast too!" This running away wasn't such a good idea. Maybe I had better tell my mother I had come back home, so I knocked on the door and no one answered. I knocked again and still no one came to the door.

I was getting a little scared now and really knocked hard the third time. The light went on and my father came to the door. I was sure glad to see him. "Hello little boy, what do you want?" my father asked. "Daddy, you know who I am and I'd like something to eat." "You must be at the wrong house, our little boy ran away and said he was never coming back so you will have to eat at your new home now. Goodbye." and he closed the door and went back in the living room.

I was really scared this time. I didn't have any other home and my mother and father didn't want me. I didn't know what to do, so I just sat on the steps and cried and I prayed too. "Please, God, tell them to let me in. I'll be good and I'll never run away and mama can put Iodine all over my finger if she wants to." And then the door opened and my mother said, "Would you like to come back home now?" I ran in and the first thing I did was to get the Iodine bottle and give it to my mother and held my finger out, and you know it didn't hardly hurt a bit. And I never ran away again.

I was just a little boy who ran away from my parents because I didn't want something that was really good for me. Other people run away, too, you know--even grownups. Sometimes a person will run away from his Heavenly Father who is trying to do something good for him just because he thinks it might be unpleasant or embarrass him a little bit. I've seen children who stayed away from Sunday school and Junior Church which is in God's house because they didn't want to do the things He wants us to do. They think what they want to do is more important.  They are running away from their heavenly Parent and going hungry too, for the things we learn in God's house is the food that will make us grow wiser and closer to Christ. We don't have any other home or anyone else to feed us, and we don't want to be left on the doorstep crying. Being in God's family is the best way for everyone.

 

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