Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-24

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called the Gospel of Luke. Luke loved Jesus and wanted others to know and love Jesus, too. And the word gospel means “good news!”

Jesus sometimes taught people using special teaching stories called parables. 


Jesus told one parable about a father and his son. The father had saved a LOT of money. Now, he saved this money to give to his son when he was MUCH older. 


But one day, the son asked his dad to give him all the money, RIGHT NOW. What do you think the dad did? Do you think he gave him the money? Yes, the dad gave it to him. The son took the money. And the son left, to go far away from home.


The son took his dad’s money and spent it on everything. He bought fancy clothes. He ate fancy food.


 He spent and spent and spent.


He spent his father’s money until it was all GONE. There was no more money. The son didn’t know what to do. 


He didn’t have a bed to sleep in or any food to eat. He was so hungry that he even thought about eating pig food! EWWW! 


The son knew he had made a lot of bad choices. He was so sorry, and he wanted to go home. But he didn’t know if his dad would let him come home. Since he had nowhere else to go, the son went home. 


When his dad saw him coming, he ran to his son and hugged him. 


Then he threw a BIG party to celebrate! That’s how the dad felt. He was SO glad the son had come home. 


The dad loved his son so much, even though the son had made bad choices and spent all the money.


I’m so glad we have a friend like Jesus to teach us important things. He teaches us that God loves us, no matter what, just like the father loved his son in this story. 




Bible Paraphrase: The crowds were amazed at his teaching. —Matthew 7:28, NIV

Text Truth: Jesus teaches us that God loves us, no matter what.



Family Devotional

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
—Luke 15:21-24

Our Bible story was about something very important that Jesus teaches us. Jesus teaches us that God loves you . . . no matter what!

Jesus told a story about a father and his son to teach us that God loves us, no matter what. Do you remember what the son did with all of the money his father had saved for him? The son went far away and spent all of the money on food, clothes, and parties. After the money was all gone, the son didn’t have any money to buy food, and he was very hungry. That’s when the son decided to go back home to his father. What did the father do when he saw his son? The father gave his son a great, big hug and threw a party! The father was SO happy his son was back! Even though the son had made some bad choices, the father still loved him. Jesus told this story so we can know that God loves us, no matter what.

The crowds were amazed at his teaching. —Matthew 7:28, NIV

Jesus teaches us that God loves us, no matter what. So, with your family, write do each family member's name. And next to each name, draw a heart to remind them that God loves them.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, Thank You for sending Jesus to be our friend forever and teach us important things. I pray we will listen to what Jesus says and remember that You love us, no matter what. You are so good, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

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Story illustrations are the copyright of Sweet Publishing and licensed by FreeBibleimages (http://freebibleimages.org) for free download under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 3.0 unported license.
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