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Poems

Lesson learned from the prodigal

From the July 1996 issue of The Christian Science Journal


(Reading the parable of the prodigal sonSee Luke 15:11-32 . one day, I saw in the elder brother's dull rectitude, my own. But from the wisdom I discerned that the returned prodigal might have shared, I took fresh heart. ...)

Join me, my brother,
In praise without end;
Come feast and rejoice
In our Father's estate.

I see your anger
At my feet freshly shod,
At robe and ring granted
To mark my return.

I squandered my substance
In faraway land;
You dutifully served out
Routine years at home.

But, O my brother,
Is your dull rote not as baseless
As the empty pleasures
I wandered to find?

There's joy for us both,
To fill up our hearts—
Mine famished from straying,
Yours from self-righteous staying.

Hear our Father reveal:
I'm not lost, but found!
You're not servant, but son!
From His holy nature we both have sprung.

Join me, my brother,
Rejoice without end
In that holy estate
All in truth may call home.

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