Jesus was the greatest of teachers. One of His favorite ways to teach the common people was through parables. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus once told the story of two sons and their loving father. In this parable, the younger son took all of his inheritance and ran away to a distant land. This delinquent son wasted his money on useless things and ended up living with pigs. When he came to his senses, he rushed back to his home, not knowing if his father would accept him. His forgiving father embraced the lost son; put ring on his finger and began to celebrate. But the older son was bitter and would not join the party. Through this parable, Jesus teaches that each of us has a loving Father in heaven who will accept us into His open arms if we truly repent.