“What’s that you’re building, son?”
she asked, watching colorful blocks
scattered across the floor,
like dreams yet to be explored.
“My school,” he said, eyes gleaming.
“Really?” she smiled.
“It’s the school for kids no one wants,”
he replied, matter-of-fact.
“And what’s the criteria to get in?”
“They should’ve failed in at least five subjects,”
he said with the gravity of a priest.
She looked at him, brows arched,
completely at a loss
for what might come next.
“Interesting… and then?”
“Then their old school should’ve made them repeat the year.”
“You know they’re already under bad influence”
She paused.
“Unless they’re dyslexic, of course.”
She studied him quietly.
“What are you going to do with these kids?”
He looked up, heart pure.
“Make them champions.”
“Brilliant,” she whispered, clapping
tears peeking from the corners of her eyes.
“That’s the challenge!
Jesus will help us make them champions!”
Years later…
Grace sat motionless on the prison bench.
Her face calm as stone,
but her fingers tightly clasped,
knuckles white with silent prayers.
Her eyes, deep wells of sorrow,
asked the questions that gnawed at her soul.
“Where did I go wrong, Lord?
I brought him up fearing Your name.
Now that he’s grown up,
he’s drifted away from me, and from You.”
The buzz of the door jolted her.
Her name echoed through the chamber,
and she rose, wiping away the tears
she hadn't known had fallen.
Then he stood before her.
A shadow of the boy she once held,
his face worn, his eyes repentant,
a soul broken open by grace.
She rushed forward, arms wrapping years of pain and prayer into a single embrace.
“Mum,” he whispered,
“I was lost… but He found me.
I’m no longer the same.”
“I know,” she breathed, voice trembling.
“So many prayers have climbed to heaven for you.”
As they neared their old neighborhood,
he was fascinated by the new buildings
that had come up.
Until the name on one caught his eye:
“The School for the Comeback?”
He turned to his mother in disbelief.
She smiled.
“You gave the vision.
He gave the means.
Today, our school has given this town
champions in every field.”
Luke 15:24 (NIV)
"For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."
So they began to celebrate.