The Prodigal's Sister

By John Piper

Book Overview

The Grace of God is so astonishing that we cannot adequately describe it. But Jesus knew how to say it-in a parable. With the drawings of Robert Doares depicting the setting, The Prodigal's Sister poetically and imaginatively retells the parable of the prodigal son with a startling twist. In the poem the younger sister of the prodigal sets out to reclaim her brother's life. The new life the prodigal finds in his father's love is mirrored in the mercy the legalistic elder brother finds when he learns that his slave-like labor is useless in winning his father's love. The Prodigal's Sister , which the author reads on the accompanying CD, rejoices over the incomparable grace of God. For anyone who has ever felt beyond the hope of joy, this poem opens a way home to the Father.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581345291
• ISBN13: 9781581345292
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Crossway Books
• Length: 63 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Listen to the CD and rejoice.

This book is meant to be listened to. I actually never read the book but have listened to the CD several times. The theme of the CD is that the two sons, both the prodigal and the son remaining at home have left the path of grace, the one to pleasure and the other to law. Listening to Piper tell his story, I am reminded again that we are saved by grace and that neither our good works nor our sin will affect our standing with the Father. If we are His children by grace, we will remain His children by grace. The concluding "Call" summarizes Piper's message: And now, 0 Christ, let there be light So we can see the way aright Between two dismal forms of death, And with that light, 0 give us breath To live again, and bring us back From pleasures in a foreign shack, Or from the pride of weary arm, While working on the Father's farm. From demon sloth and pleasures raw, Or demon toil and pride of law. The pathway home from either place Is opened by the word of grace. 0 Christ, pursue us till we see That all of God's bequests are free. The ticket that we have to show Is this: that we are glad to go. If you are His child, listen to this book and rejoice in God's grace.

An excellent imaginative perspective on a familiar parable..

I would have to disagree with the previous reviewer's assertion that this book is "bad poetry." Poetry, by definition, communicates experience, and this book communicates experience better than any poem I have read in a while. Piper does a splendid job of communicating the ineffable grace of God as He uses the "weakest" of His people to draw others to Himself. Reading it, for me, was a humbling, awe-inspiring experience because it reminded me of my purpose in life. As for the so-called "bad poetry," poets through the ages have written in rhymed iambic tetrameter. It is the reader's responsibility not to get caught up in poetic form but, rather, to "read from punctuation mark to punctuation mark--not from line to line," (as I tell my students) to see how the form contributes to the poem's meaning.