We continue our Essential Songs series today with Dustin Kensrue‘s (also the singer and main song writer for Thrice) heart-breaking re-telling of the Prodigal Son story. Read the words and listen to this live recording, enjoy the song, and then maybe answer some of the questions at the bottom of the post:

Well I woke one morning,
found you staring down at me,
you said “I’ll take my share now, father please”,
and you took your money,
and you took your leave,
you took my heart and turned your back on me…

And you hit the town,
and you hit the bottle hard,
you race ’round in your fancy cars and you blow all your money,
on brothels, beds, and bars,
before you know your broken times get hard…

I still stand here waiting,
with my eyes fixed on the road,
and I fight back tears and I wonder,
if you’re ever coming home,
don’t you know son that I love you,
and I don’t care where you’ve been,
so please come home.

And now you’ve hit bottom,
all those open doors have shut,
and you’re hungry stomach’s tied in knots,
but I know what you’re thinking,
that you troubled me enough,
nothing could ever separate you from my love…

I still stand here waiting,
with my eyes fixed on the road,
and I fight back tears and I wonder,
if you’re ever coming home,
don’t you know son that I love you,
and I don’t care where you’ve been,
yes and I’ll be right here waiting,
’til you come around the bend,
and I run to you and hold you close,
won’t let go again,
so please come home,
please come home…

Don’t you know son that I love you?
And I don’t care where you’ve been,
so please come home

You can purchase this song on and Amazon MP3

Why do you think Dustin chose to write about this particular story?

Do you think people will realize the signifcance of the story, or believe that it is just another good folk song?