The Prodigal Son Bible Story for Kids.

God is like the father in Jesus' story. When we turn back to Him, He welcomes us home with open arms and great joy.

Keep the story going.

Free printable

We Love Because He First Loved Us coloring page

Print it tomorrow and let the story sink in with crayons on the table.

Print the coloring page →

Next in reading order

Jesus Heals Ten Lepers

Ten men are healed of a terrible disease. Only one comes back to thank Jesus. And Jesus notices.

Read the next story →

Little Prayers

for Henry

Their own keepsake

Little Prayers

Ten bedtime prayers starring your child, with their name on the cover.

Create their book →

Looking for books to read after this story? Visit Our Favorites.

The kind of things parents wonder.

• What does “prodigal” mean?

  Prodigal means wastefully extravagant, someone who spends everything recklessly. The word never actually appears in Luke 15; it is the traditional title the story picked up over the centuries. For kids, “the son who wasted everything” gets it across. Some teachers point out the father is extravagant too, recklessly generous with his love, which is why the story is sometimes called the parable of the loving father.

• Why did the father run?

  In that time and place, a dignified older man simply did not run. He would have to hitch up his robes and let the whole village watch, which was considered embarrassing. That is exactly the point. The father gladly looks undignified so his son doesn't have to walk the last stretch of shame alone. The running is a picture of grace: God doesn't wait for us to earn our way back. He comes to meet us.

• Is the older brother the bad guy?

  No. The older brother is angry, but the father loves both sons, and the story shows him going out to the older one just as he went out to the younger. Jesus told this parable to people who were grumbling about who deserved God's welcome, so the older brother is really a gentle question mark aimed at the listener: will you come in to the feast too? The story ends with the invitation still open.

• Why was the son feeding pigs?

  For the Jewish families listening to Jesus, pigs were unclean animals, ones they would not eat or even touch. So a son of Israel feeding pigs, and longing to eat the pigs' pods, was rock bottom: the lowest place the listeners could imagine. Jesus chose that detail on purpose, because the story is about how far the father's love reaches, all the way down to the muddiest, farthest-away place.

• What is the main lesson of the Prodigal Son for kids?

  That God's love does not run out when we get things wrong. The son hoped, at best, to be a hired servant; instead his father ran to him, hugged him, and threw a feast. Children learn that saying sorry and coming home is always safe with God, and that real love celebrates the person who comes back.

• What age is the Prodigal Son story good for?

  It works for roughly ages 3 to 8. Preschoolers can follow the simple arc of leaving home and being welcomed back with a hug, while older children can dig into the pigs and pods, the father's undignified run, and the older brother's fairness complaint, which often mirrors questions they are already asking.

• How do you explain the Prodigal Son to a child?

  Tell it as a leaving-and-coming-home story and keep the father in view the whole way. A younger son asked for his share of the family money and went far away, where he spent all of it and ended up hungry and feeding pigs. He decided to walk home and say sorry, expecting to be treated like a hired worker. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him, ran to him, hugged him, and threw a party. If your child is very young, that is the entire story and it is enough. The sentence to leave them with: he was still far away when his father started running.

• What is the moral of the Prodigal Son?

  It is really the father's story more than the son's. Jesus told it to people who were complaining that He welcomed the wrong sort of company, so the moral aims straight at them: God's welcome is wider and quicker and more undignified than we expect, and grumbling about who gets in misses the party entirely. That is why the parable ends with the older brother still standing outside and the invitation still open. Jesus leaves the ending unfinished on purpose.

• Where is the story of the Prodigal Son in the Bible?

  Luke 15:11 to 32, in the New Testament. It is the third of three lost-and-found parables Jesus tells in one sitting, after the lost sheep and the lost coin, and it only appears in Luke's Gospel. Reading all three together in Luke 15 takes about six minutes and makes the pattern obvious even to a young child.

• Why did the son decide to come home?

  Hunger, at first. The text says he came to himself while he was starving among the pigs, and that his father's hired servants had bread to spare while he was perishing. So he rehearsed a speech: he would say he had sinned, that he was not worthy to be called a son, and ask to be made a hired servant. He was not walking home confident of a welcome; he was walking home because he had run out of everything else. That is worth telling children plainly, because it means coming back does not require having the right feelings first.

• What do the robe, the ring, and the sandals mean?

  The Bible does not stop to explain them, so it is best not to be too certain with children. What the scene shows is unmistakable even without an explanation: the son arrives with a servant's speech ready, and before he can finish it his father calls for the best robe, a ring for his hand, and shoes for his feet, which some translations render as sandals. That is how you dress a son, not a hired worker. The father answers the request to be a servant by publicly making him a son again. A child who has ever been given a hug instead of the telling-off they braced for already understands it.

• Is the Prodigal Son a true story?

  It is a parable, which means a teaching story Jesus made up to show something true, not a report of something that happened to a particular family. Children handle that distinction well when you compare it to a story you might tell at the dinner table to explain a point. The father in the story is not a real man from history. What he shows about God is completely true, and that is what Jesus wanted His listeners to walk away holding.

Conversation starters.

Questions to ask after you read together. No right answers, just good conversation.

Teaching this story.

• 01Reenact the run. Have your child walk slowly down the hallway as the ragged son while you play the father, and when they are “still far off,” run to them with your arms wide and scoop them up. That physical memory of being run to is the whole parable; children ask to do it again and again, and they should.
• 02Some children are older brothers at heart, the rule-followers who notice fairness keenly. Don't brush past his complaint. Point out that the father comes out to him too and says “all that is mine is yours.” This story has open arms for both kinds of kids.
• 03For ages 3–5, keep it to leaving-and-welcomed-home: a boy left his father, things went badly, he walked home, and his father ran to hug him. The inheritance, the pods, and the older brother can wait until they're ready.
• 04Read it alongside the Lost Sheep. Jesus told these stories together in Luke 15, and children love spotting the pattern: something precious gets lost, someone goes looking, and finding it ends in joy every time.

Try it together

The Long Road Home

Cut a dozen paper footprints and lay them in a winding line down the hallway. Walk them one way as the son leaving, saying out loud what he takes with him, then turn around and walk the same footprints back, slower, with empty hands. Stand at the far end and have the grown-up spot the child from a distance and run the last stretch. Most children want a second go, and the second time they usually want to be the father.

Try it together

One More Place at the Table

Before dinner, lay an extra place setting with your child: plate, cup, napkin, the good fork. Leave it empty through the meal and talk about who the father in the story would have wanted in that chair. At the end, let your child clear it and say who in your family or neighbourhood they would want to fill it. It turns the parable into an invitation rather than a lesson, which is how Jesus left it.

Keep exploring.

More stories: The Lost Sheep