He Was Lost and Is Found

He was still a great way off when his father saw him — and ran. This luminous oil painting captures the climactic moment of the parable of the prodigal son: a ragged, road-worn young man on his knees in the dust of the long road home, wrapped in the arms of a father who never stopped watching for him. Behind them the sun is going down in a blaze of gold and amber over the Galilean countryside, the road that swallowed so much heartache now lit with the warm light of homecoming. Jesus told this story to show us what God is like — not waiting with crossed arms at the door, but running down the road before the apology is finished. Download this high-resolution digital image for your evangelistic appeal, Sabbath School lesson on repentance and grace, sermon series on the parables, or personal devotional use. Few images in the Advent Images collection carry this much grace in a single frame.