There was a little boy who earned his living by working for a man. who cleaned chimneys. This boy was sent to clean chimneys with a special kind of broom to sweep away all the dirt and soot that gathers there.
One day he was sent to a certain house to do this. He climbed up to the roof and carefully let himself down the chimney and began his work of sweeping it out. But he hadn’t been at it very long, when he heard the lady of the house calling loudly to him to stop. So he climbed out to the roof again, and down to the ground.
There he met the woman, who took him into her living room and showed him how much dirt he had made. And he had been sweeping the chimney of the wrong house!
The lady said to him, “You are too small to be sweeping chimneys. Why aren’t you at home?” “I have no home,” answered the little boy, “Where is your mother?” she asked him. “I have no mother,” he replied, “And your father?” “I have no father.” “Where do you sleep then?” the lady asked. He answered, “In the fields, or wherever I can.”
Then the lady said, “I had a little baby boy once and someone stole him away. I have never seen him since then, but I would know him at once if I ever saw him—he had a mark or his shoulder.”
“I have a mark on my shoulder,” said the little boy.
“Let me see it,” she said eagerly.
Sure enough, when he showed her his shoulder, she found the mark was the same, and she knew that this boy was her very own son, whom she had lost so many years before. I can’t tell you how happy she was!
She washed him and made turn lovely and clean, then took him to the store and bought him a new suit, shirt, and everything he needed. She brought him home again all dressed up in his new clothes, and then she called her husband at work and asked him to come home right away, as she had some very good news for him. He came, and was taken into the lovingroom, and was taken into the livingroom, and there was the little boy, their own dear son. She told her husband all about him, and they rejoiced together.
So dear children, there is joy in heaven over each newly found sinner that comes home to the Saviour and is washed in His blood and clothed in the robe of righteousness. Have you come to Him yet? The father of the prodigal son of whom we read in the Bible said,
And there is a welcome for you, too, if you come.
ML 12/30/1951