Swamini Piyanani

My Lord,
my Father..
I have come back, seeking your fatherly love once more….
I have come seeking the inheritance I destroyed…
My Lord, my Father..
the wasteful son, here at your two feet..
fallen down, I lament, I have come seeking you…

Gold and silver, I want none of it..
fine robes and cloth, I want none of it..
even so, say to me once again,
“I love you, my son”….
“I love you, my son”….

This is a hymn built entirely on one of Jesus’ best-loved parables, the story of the prodigal son, the young man who wasted his inheritance and came home in shame, only to be met by a father running to embrace him. The song puts us inside that son’s heart as he returns: “my Lord, my Father, I have come back, seeking your fatherly love once more; I have come seeking the inheritance I destroyed.” He does not hide what he has done; he names himself plainly, “the wasteful son, here at your two feet, fallen down, I lament.”

What makes the hymn so moving is how small and pure the returning son’s request has become. He has learned, the hard way, what actually matters. “Gold and silver, I want none of it; fine robes and cloth, I want none of it.” The wealth he once squandered no longer interests him at all. He has come home not for money or comfort but for something no inheritance could buy.

And that one thing is love, spoken aloud. The whole song aches toward its final line, repeated like a longing that will not be silenced: “even so, say to me once again, ‘I love you, my son.'” That is all he wants, to hear the father call him “son” again and say he is loved, despite everything. What the listener is left with is the very heart of the gospel, that no matter how far we have wandered or how much we have wasted, we can always come home, fall at the Father’s feet, and hear the words that make us whole again: “I love you, my son.””