Pastor John Van Sloten

I just saw this image in an old TIME LIFE book. The caption read, “A six year old orphan from Austria ecstatically embraces a brand new pair of shoes just given to him by the Red Cross.” It’s a powerful image, and in my mind it’s a parable; The parable of the prodigal son…

When that self-orphaned prodigal came home again, his gracious, Red Cross-like father embraced him, and gave him a new pair of shoes. Surely he felt like the boy in the photo. Surely this is the same parable. Surely Christ has authored both stories.

(The boy’s tattered old shoes reminded me of this Van Gogh painting)

And the images became this Easter Sunday sermon;