Welcome Wanderer

Luke 15 contains three beautiful stories that picture the love of God and His grace in Jesus Christ.  The night I was saved the sermon was from Luke 15 – The Prodigal Son.  Oh what grace in that story!  Oh what love in the Father!  O what welcome and forgiveness!  It is a story that resounds to the hearts of all those who have wandered in the pig sties of life and found it wanting.  But Gods grace is greater than all our sins and He has run to greet the lost child. 

This story has led to the writing of more hymns than just about any other text except the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. It encompasses all the topics of love, forgiveness, grace and acceptance in the Beloved.  Such great writers as Thomas Chisholm and Fanny Crosby have penned wonderful accounts from this text.  So has the great Scottish preacher and hymnist Horatio Bonar.  Ira Sankey, the gifted song leader who accompanied Dwight Moody on his crusades, wrote the musical score for Bonar’s hymn.  “Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!” became a very popular hymn and much used by God to invite those lost in sin to find a place of comfort, love and forgiveness at the Father’s table.

Each of the seven verses of this hymn is a short and direct appeal to a particular need of those whose lives are stuck outside the kingdom of God.  Each of these short verses ends with the beckoning words, “My son! My son!”  God the Father loved us so much that He sent His own Son as the Good Shepherd into the treacherous mountain crags to retrieve His lost sheep from peril and destruction.  He is the Father who ran to meet the prodigal as he neared his Father’s house.  His great grace in Jesus Christ bids mankind to leave the filth of the pig sty and find cleansing and home in the Father’s house.

Here are some verses and the chorus of “Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!” (1) “In the land of strangers, whither thou art gone; hear a far voice calling, My son! My son!” (4) “See the door still open! Thou art still my own; eyes of love are on thee, My son! My son!” (5) “Far off thou hast wandered, wilt thou farther roam? Come, and all is pardoned, My son! My son!” Chorus: “Welcome, wand’rer, welcome! Welcome back to home! Thou hast wandered far away: come home! Come home!”  Remember the grace of God that called you and rejoice in the welcome home that He offered.  Share it with someone today.  

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