there might be a spot for him again in his father’s house. Despite being his father’s son, even with the years of living in his father’s shadow, he believed only that his father might be willing to let him live and work among the servants. But when he encountered his father’s welcome home, or in Rembrandt’s depiction only when he placed his ear against his father’s beating chest, did the son know his father’s deep compassion. Jesus’ parable about the Prodigal Son might be viewed as a mirror of our