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I like to feed hummingbirds. As I was researching how to feed them well, I\nfound\nthat many websites say to watch for stragglers at the end of the warm\nseason. This year, we\u2019ve had a couple stragglers. It\u2019s November when I\nwrite this, and I am still putting out food and it\u2019s still disappearing. I\nkeep thinking these hummingbirds are lost and one day they\u2019ll wish they\nwere someplace warmer.\nIn Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about another straggler. The Prodigal son\nleft home with his father\u2019s money in his pocket. Now no one would tell him\nwhat to dohe was free to make his own choices. He did exactly as he wanted\nto\u2026until he had spent every bit of his money. Alone, abandoned by his\npartying friends, he was hungry, thirsty, and had no place to sleep.\nThen he found a job feeding pigs, which was about the lowest job anyone\ncould find at that time. Pigs were seen as nasty, dirty creatures that\nwould eat about anything. The Prodigal found himself feeding them pods. The\nhogs gobbled them up. The Prodigal stared at the pods, wondering what they\ntasted like. He might have been so hungry that he ate some. As his belly\nmoaned and he could barely stand the smell of the pigs (or himself), he\nthought of his father. Realizing that maybe he could still be a servant in\nhis father\u2019s householda place where he could have something to eat and\nsomewhere to sleephe started toward home.\nAs the Prodigal approached his father\u2019s house, he found his father waiting.\nMost of us might assume he wouldn\u2019t be welcome. (And in fact, his older\nbrother grumbled and complained when he came back.) Yet his father hugged\nhim close, offered him a bath, clean clothes, and foodand welcomed him\nback as his son. Not a servant, but his son.\nJesus welcomes usrebellious stragglers though we areinto His arms and\ninto His household. And He asks us to welcome fellow stragglers who are\nlost. Jesus will take them in, offer them new beginnings, a place in His\nfamily, and love that overwhelms. \xe2\xa6 Anna Gregory\n\xe2\xa6 Have you ever felt like the younger brother in this story: lost, dirty,\nand broken? Jesus invites you to bring these feelings to Him and rest in\nHis love.\n\xe2\xa6 Have you ever felt like the older brother in this story: wary,\nsuspicious, and perhaps jealous of outsiders coming into the church? You\ncan bring these feelings to Jesus too and ask Him to help you extend His\nlove and stragglers.\nFor the Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and save those who are lost. Luke\n19:10 (NLT)\n\xa0\nRead Verses:\nLuke 15:10-Luke 15:32; Luke 19:10