The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

I personally believe this is a great book. It helps you see the parable of "The Prodigal Son" from a different perspective and helps you realize that you can not only identify yourself with the prodigal son, but with the other two prominent figures in the story. Also, the book will help you see that it doesn't matter how far away from home or how many struggles you have in life, you are not so far away from your heavenly father. He will always be willing to reach for his son and bring him home.

Nouwen takes the reader through a process of looking at the relationship between all three of the characters in the story of the prodigal son. He uses the rembrandt to encourage the reader to take a closer look into the people, helping to add complexity and dimensions to what is going on in the single event captured in the rembrandt--the prodigal son returning. As Nouwen takes the reader into his personal reflections of his life, I also discover how parts of each character is in me and that I can identify with the prodigal son, the all loving father, and the bitter obedient elder son. This is a book that I will take out over and over again as a reminder of God's encompassing love for me and just how vast it is.

A wonderful book and a good read for anyone who is uncertain about their purpose in life.

A group of us are reading THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON in our small group. We have read a lot of very good books over the five years we have been meeting (including several by Francis Schaeffer and C. S. Lewis). I rate this one among the very best. It is causing us to ask ourselves which of the characters we are more like - the Prodigal Son, the Elder Son, or the Father. Maybe we move through times of being more like one and then become more like one of the others at other times. We highly recommend the book.

Henri Nouwen's Stories of Homecoming is truly beautiful. His honest sharing of his sincere struggles offers hope to others in similar predicaments that they also can overcome by God's love and grace. If you allow your heart to be touched, your life will also be transformed.