Homecoming. There is something so special about HOME.

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.(1)

The Bible is full of homecoming stories that would be perfect for a day like today - Jacob's homecoming to meet brother Esau, the return of the nation of Israel from exile, and this one we just read, the return of the Prodigal Son, in what has been called the greatest short story ever written.

"Father, I want RIGHT NOW what's coming to me." My inheritance!!! It was an outrageous request - it said in effect, "Dad, drop dead!"

Dr. Kenneth Bailey, who taught for years at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, writes of knowing of only one case in modern village life where this kind of request was made. An older son asked his father t…