Thank heavens for the Truth!

I am lesson planning right now - well, I have actually packed it in for the night - but I was just lesson planning. I am in the middle of planning my short story unit for English 11. I will be teaching a short story that makes reference to the parable of the prodigal son. The story is new to me (the short story that is, not the parable), but it is quite an interesting one. It is about family dynamics and how a particular son always "charms" his family and in doing so manipulates situations to always work out in his favour. He always facetiously quotes the prodigal son when he is apologizing to his family. However, half way through the story, he lets his family down (really lets them down) and this time he can't charm his way out of the mess. Long story short (well, short story made shorter I guess is technically correct!), the father finally stands up to the son and tells him that he either needs to start pulling his weight, or he needs to leave the family. While reading the story, the reader is led to cheer at this action of the father and feel that justice has somehow been restored because of it. As I said, it is an interesting story, and one of the better ones that I have read in this particular anthology, but it sure pales in comparison. While the son got what "he deserved", this story doesn't hold the beauty of the parable told by Jesus. What a beautiful story of forgiveness, redemption and love: the kind of love that forgets all past wrongs and runs to embrace us; the kind of love that clothes us in the finest robes; the kind of love that would lay down His life for us. I will be teaching my class the parable of the prodigal son to give them some context and to help them understand the many references in the short story. Lord, I pray you will prepare the hearts of those that will hear the story in my classroom, and I pray that your Holy Spirit will whisper in their ears that this love is YOU and that you are offering yourself to them.

I am thankful that between these two stories there is a stark difference. I am thankful that one is Truth.