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Jeanne was nervous as she waited for her husband to come home. She had spent some of their carefully saved money on a New Testament that after-noon. The itinerant book salesman who had knocked on their cottage door had somehow seemed trustworthy. Never-theless, she had hesitated to buy the book he had held out to her, unsure of how the priest would view her purchase. She finally consented to buy it, saying, “I cannot refuse, monsieur, but may I be pardoned if it is a sin.”
When Jacques, her husband, came home, Jeanne timidly showed him her book. As she had feared, he was tired and cross and scolded her for wasting his money. “But,” she said, “the money is not all yours, Jacques. I brought my dowry when we married. The money was as much mine as yours.”
“Give me the book,” shouted Jacques angrily. He snatched it from her hands. “The money was half yours and half mine, you say. Very well, the book is the same.” He opened the book roughly, tore it in two pieces, keeping one and throwing the other to Jeanne.
Several days later Jacques sat in the forest and suddenly remembered the torn book and took it out to investigate it. His part was the second half of the New Testament. He had divided it in Luke’s Gospel. His half began with these words.
“And will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15:18‑19). Spellbound he read to the end of the story, and then a dozen questions presented themselves. What had he done—the poor lost son? Why was he exiled? Where had he been? What had caused him to return? The questions haunted him, but at first his pride prevented him asking for the first part of the book.
Meanwhile Jeanne occasionally read over her part of the book and thought about its contents. She began to love it, but when she reached the end, her interest was doubly quickened. That younger son—his waywardness, his journey, his sin, his misery, the wonderful change in his thoughts. “I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father...” (Luke 15:17‑18). There the story stopped.
What happened? Did the father welcome him? Her heart longed for a satisfactory answer. She even cried over the story, but she could not get up enough courage to ask Jacques.
One day, Jacques came home feeling especially tired. He ate his soup and bread for supper as usual, and at last he blurted out, “Jeanne, you remember the book I tore in two? My part had in it a wonderful story, but only the end of it. I cannot rest until I know the beginning of it. Bring me your piece.”
“Oh, Jacques! That story is always on my mind, only I lack the ending. Did the father receive that willful son?”
“He did. But what was the sin that separated them?”
She brought her piece and knelt by his chair. Together they read the whole of the beautiful story in Luke 15, and the Spirit of God who had been working in both of their hearts caused its hidden meaning to dawn on them.
That was the first of many Bible readings by the firelight after they ate their soup and bread; and soon both yielded their hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jacques and Jeanne applied the story to their lives. Have you applied it to yours? Like them, we each need to confess to God that we have sinned.
Then comes the question—did the father receive that willful son? Yes, he did, for “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” (Luke 15:20). God will receive you with the same welcome if you come to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. No man comes to the Father except by Him. Jesus said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” John 14:6
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15).
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Have you accepted Him as your personal Savior?
If you are not familiar with the story commonly called “The Story of the Prodigal Son,” you may read it on the next page, just as Jesus told it. The word “prodigal” means “wasteful.” Please do not waste God’s goodness to you.
And He said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 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. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.