The Return

I saw you from the doorway –
I’d been watching there for you,
Hoping you’d return
As wand’rers sometimes do.

You’d wandered such a long way,
So very far from home,
A stranger in a strange land,
Lost and all alone.

A far country took you from me.
When famine came in time,
All spent, poor as could be,
You fell to feeding swine.

Swine’s husks you fain would eat
But deep within said “No;
In father's house is meat;
To father’s house I’ll go.”

"The servants there fare better;
Perhaps I can be one.
I'll take a lower place,
Unworthy as a son."

And then one day I saw you,
Far, far down the path.
I leaped and I ran to you;
I had no thought of wrath.

I threw my arms around you,
So glad that you’d come home.
Hot tears ran down my cheeks,
My precious, long-lost son.

You said “I’ll be a servant.”
I said “You are a son.”
A robe, a ring, and new shoes,
For life, from death, was won.

Oh, reader, have you wandered?
Are you close as you should be?
The Father waits and watches
To catch a glimpse of thee.

Take one step! He sees you!
He’s coming, drawing nigh.
He’ll wrap His arms around you,
You shall live, you shall not die.

The robe is His salvation,
The ring, authority,
The shoes, a walk in God –
He giveth all to thee.