There was once a man who had two sons. He loved them both very much, and they had grown up together on his farm, and one day they would each get half of everything he owned. That was how it worked in those days. The older son would get his half, and the younger son would get his half, and they would each have enough to live on for the rest of their lives.

But the younger son did not want to wait. He went to his father and he said, "Father, I do not want to live here anymore. Give me my half of the farm now. I want to go away and live my own life."

This was a hurtful thing to ask. Asking for your share of the family before your father was even gone was almost the same as saying, "I wish you weren't here." But the father did not argue. He was sad, but he loved his son, and he knew his son had to choose for himself. So he sold half of the farm, and he gave the younger son the money, and he watched him go.

The younger son went to a country far away. At first, everything was wonderful. He had more money than he had ever had. He bought new clothes, and he threw parties, and he had many friends. The friends laughed at his jokes. The friends ate his food. The friends drank his wine. He spent the money on things that did not last, and on people who were not really his friends at all.

Then one day the money was gone. All of it.

And the moment the money was gone, his friends were gone too.

While the younger son was busy losing all his money, a great famine came to the country he was living in. A famine is when there is not enough food anywhere, for anyone. People who had been rich became poor. People who had been poor began to starve. And the younger son had nothing.

He took the only job he could find. A farmer hired him to feed pigs. Now you should know: in his country, pigs were considered the dirtiest, lowest animals you could possibly work with. A boy who had grown up on a fine farm, with two parents who loved him, was now sleeping in a pig pen. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat the pigs' food. But no one even gave him that.

One day, sitting in the mud with the pigs, he came to himself. That is what the old story says, he came to himself. Like a person waking up from a long, foolish dream. He thought:

"At my father's house, even the servants have plenty of food. They sleep in clean beds. They are treated well. Here I am, dying of hunger. I am going to go home. I will tell my father I am sorry. I will tell him I do not deserve to be his son anymore. I will ask him to make me one of his servants, because being his servant is better than being whatever I am now."

So the younger son got up out of the mud. He started the long walk home. Day after day, with no money and no food and his good clothes turned to rags, he walked. He practiced what he was going to say. He said it over and over again so he would not forget it: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not worthy to be called your son anymore. Make me one of your servants."

That was his plan.

It was not even really a plan to be sorry. It was a plan to eat.

Now here is the surprising part of the story.

While the younger son was still very far away, walking down the road in his rags, his father saw him.

How did the father see him? Because the father had been watching that road. Every day. For a very long time. The father had never given up. The father had been hoping, every day, that today would be the day his son came home.

When the father saw the small ragged figure on the road, far away, he did not wait for him to come closer. He did not even walk. He ran. An old man, the father of two grown sons, ran down the road in front of his servants and the people of his town, with no thought for how he looked. He ran and ran until he reached his son, and then he threw his arms around him, and he kissed him.

The younger son started his speech. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not worthy to be called your son anymore,"

But the father was not listening to the speech. The father was already shouting at the servants who had run after him. "Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet! Bring the very best calf, the one we were saving, and let us cook it. We are going to have a feast tonight. My son was lost, and now he is found. My son was as good as dead, and now he is alive."

The younger son never even got to the part of the speech where he asked to be a servant. The father had already decided. He was not going to be a servant. He was going to be a son. He had always been a son.

That very night, the lights were lit, and the music played, and the whole household sat down to a feast, because the boy who had gone away was home.

But there was someone who was not at the feast.

The older brother had been out in the fields all day, working, the way he always did. As he came home in the evening, he heard the music and the dancing from a long way off. He stopped a servant on the road. "What is going on?" he asked.

The servant said, "Your brother is home! Your father is so happy that he is throwing a feast, he killed the best calf, because your brother is back safe."

The older brother became angry. He stood there in the road, and he would not go inside the house. He would not even walk up to the door.

His father heard about this, and the father came out to him. The father came out, just as he had run to the younger son. He found the older brother standing alone outside, in the dark, and he begged him to come in.

But the older brother said, "Look. For all these years I have worked for you. I have done everything you ever asked. I have never once disobeyed you. And you never gave me even a young goat so that I could have a small celebration with my friends. But this son of yours", and notice he did not say my brother, he said this son of yours, "this son of yours, who threw away your money on parties and bad people, comes back and you kill the best calf for him?"

The father looked at his older son for a long time. And then the father said, very quietly:

"My son. You have been with me always. Everything I have is yours. It was always yours. But your brother was lost, and now he is found. Your brother was as good as dead, and now he is alive. We have to celebrate. We have to be glad."

The story ends there. It does not say what the older brother said back. It does not say if the older brother went into the feast, or if he stayed outside in the dark, or if the two brothers ever spoke to each other again.

This is another one of those stories where the ending is not given.

Because the ending is yours.