I wrote this story for Vacation Bible School when I was senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. I loved telling it as much as writing it. I enjoy writing Gospel stories in which I use animals to draw the children into the story. I pray this story might be of some good to someone. And remember, it must be delivered with the joy of one who has been reclaimed by Christ!

How much are you worth to God? Maybe you don’t know God or have stopped obeying Him or don’t want His love. Jesus tells us three stories to show us how much the Father loves you and wants you to love Him.

Jesus’ three stories are about: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and then finally a lost son. Which do you think is most important? A lost sheep? A lost coin? Or a lost child? Right! Jesus told the stories like that to really get our attention and to show how much He loves you.

Now before I get to the Bible story, I want to tell you about a little goat named Guffaw.
Guffaw was a little boy goat. Goats are called kids, so this was a kid named Guffaw.

Well, Guffaw lived on a farm with a nice family and a nice owner named Danny. He loved his little goat and took care of him. Guffaw also ate very well. He loved the tasty oats his owner gave him each day (laced with black strap molasses) and every now and then he could reach his head through the gate to the garden and bite into some wonderful azalea bushes. Oh, that was a treat! But Guffaw was always looking over the fence to the outside of the farm.

And do you know what he saw? Guffaw saw some crafty cats. Oh, these weren’t ordinary crafty cats, but very crafty cats, bad crafty cats, mysterious crafty cats. These crafty cats had a bad attitude! The crafty cats, one black and one grey, were named Grimy and Grumbler. They had escaped from their homes and were just rambling about the way crafty cats do. They looked so free, so happy.

“If only I could be like those crafty cats,” thought Guffaw. “I could be a free and happy crafty kid!” Now I tell you again, Guffaw had it all: nice parents, nice owner, nice shed to sleep in and all of the oats he could eat with an occasional azalea bush. But he kept thinking: if only I could be like Grimy and Grumbler, the bad crafty cats.

Well, one-day curiosity killed the kid, so to speak, and Guffaw jumped the fence! His father, Randolph, and his mother, Rhonda, saw him, but they weren’t fast enough to stop him. They wept as he jumped that fence. His mother cried, “Oh, my little kid! We may never see him again!” But Randolph his father held his mother in his arms and told her, “I am waiting for little Guffaw. I will wait here by the gate for my kid.”

Danny, the little farmer’s boy who was Guffaw’s owner didn’t find out that Guffaw was missing until that afternoon when he came with his oats and black strap molasses. He, too, cried.

Well, the day his parents wept and Danny wept was the day that Guffaw’s crafty adventures began. He followed the bad crafty cats around. He tried to keep up with them as they climbed trees, but a goat cannot climb a tree. He tried to sleep on the windowsill of the farmer’s house like the crafty cats, but a goat just can’t get up into a windowsill. Pretty soon, all of the fun wasn’t so fun anymore. He just wanted to go back home.

But after following the crafty cats he was now lost. Grimy and Grumbler went off into the woods where other crafty cats gathered under the moon and they all yowled and made other wild cat sounds. All those loud noises that only crafty cats can make scared Guffaw. Then they ate fried vulture feathers. Have you ever eaten a fried vulture feather? Crafty cats love them. And they ate them right out there in the moonlight in the woods making those yowling noises that wild crafty cats make.

Not only did all of that scare Guffaw, but he could not bring himself to eat fried vulture feathers. He preferred the tasty oats, sometimes laced with black strap molasses, and the occasional azalea bush, when he could stretch his neck that far. Guffaw got terribly hungry. So he ate, very slowly and very reluctantly, fried vultures feathers. Yuk! Well, that was it for him.

The life of a crafty cat was not the life for a good little goat and he just wanted go home. But how could he ever do that? He figured his owner, little Danny, would not take him back. His mother, Rhonda, surely would whip him severely. And his father, Randolph—well, he just couldn’t bear to see his father again. He would be so angry with him. No. His life was over.

But then, he had a thought! I will be like a donkey to my owner! I will volunteer to pull his wagon! I will plow his field! I will be his donkey. And my father…well, I will just act like I am not his son. He began his long trip out of the woods and back to the farm. He could still hear the sounds of the crafty cats yowling in the woods, but soon their yowls were replaced by another sound…could it be? Yes! It was Danny’s voice!

Danny was calling for him: “He-e-re Guffaw! He-e-re little goat!” Guffaw let out a kid yell. How do you think he sounded? What did he holler out? (Bah!). Right! Well, Danny started out after Guffaw, following the sound of his voice.

And Guffaw heard him running and started running towards Danny. But just then an amazing thing happened: he saw that Danny was with his father, Randolph. And Randolph broke the leash that Danny had on him and ran toward his son! Would he whip Guffaw? No-o-o-o-o-o—o-o-! He licked Guffaw all over and told him, “O my little kid, I love you and I have been waiting for you to come home. I am glad you are my kid.”

Guffaw went back to the farm and his mother also licked him all over and nuzzled him and Danny fed him some oats. And the azalea bushes were just beginning to bloom. Everything inside the fence looked so good to Guffaw.

I hoped you liked that story about Guffaw. You know Jesus told a story too. He told a story about—not a goat—but a boy.

And that boy wanted to leave and go to a far country. He took his allowance and left home. He blew all of his allowance with wild, crafty people in that far away land. But then bad times came. And Jesus said that the boy had to take care of some pigs. And for a Jewish boy taking care of pigs was about as bad as it gets.

But then it got worse. He had to eat pig food because he got so poor. So, he thought: even the servants have it better than I do. I will return and be a servant. As he went back home though, he saw a beautiful sight. He saw his father. And his father was running to meet him. He had been waiting for him. He would not even listen to him talk about being a servant. Instead, he called him, “My son.”

Now Jesus told this story to show us how God loves us even when we run away from Him. And He also wants us to see that we can come to Him, not as servants, but as sons and daughters. This is something much better than we could ever hope for.

Have you come home to Jesus? Turn from staying away from Him. Turn away from sin and turn towards Jesus. Trust Him by faith. Jesus will always forgive you. But even more than that, like the good father, Jesus will come searching for you. Maybe He is doing that right now. Come home.

Michael A. Milton is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chancellor/CEO Elect, and James M. Baird Jr. Professor of Pastoral Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina. This article first appeared in Dr. Milton’s blog,mikemilton.org/ and is used with his permission.