Being Part of the Family

For any of us who have grown up in Sunday School, we have heard the story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15, verses 11-32.  If you are of my generation you were told the story using flannel graph. If you were a lucky duck the day the story was told in Sunday School, you got to move the characters around the flannel board- whoa!  In very simplistic terms, there is a dad with 2 sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance, and the father complies. Off the younger son goes to do all the things a parent fears most their child will do and blow every penny. He eventually finds himself trapped in a horrific job trying to make ends meet. He decides to return home, apologize for being so unwise and disrespectful, and see if his dad will give him a job on the family farm. When he is getting closer to home, Dad sees him, rushes to hug him, and throws a huge party to welcome his lost son home. The older son is not happy with the turn of events. He feels slighted and the story ends without a complete resolution for the entire family.  Again -very simplistically- the father in the story is God; the younger son is someone who doesn’t believe in God; the older son is someone who does believe in God. There are many lessons in the story -it is a parable after all, a story told to teach a lesson. Lesson 1.) God allows us to choose; lesson 2.) God is always eager to welcome anyone back home; lesson 3.) to receive forgiveness, one needs to be sorry for what one has done; 4.) God’s forgiveness is real and comes complete with a celebration!
I have two children. For years, as I read this story, I was afraid my children would be like the two sons. One child would leave home (without an inheritance, we don’t have that kind of cash flow) and live a lifestyle seen in raunchy movies. The other child would live nearby (we don’t have a family farm, nor land for said child to homestead on) and come over regularly for dinner.  At some point, the wild child would return to my great joy, but the family would remain fractured.
Recently I read this story again in my quiet time. I admit I was cruising through the verses because the story is so familiar to me,  when this phrase jumped out to me  in verse 28: “the older son became angry…”  Questions began to pop into my train of thought: Why was he angry? Did he feel left out? Did he feel used? Was he generally unhappy with life? Why didn’t his father know? Did he ever talk to his dad about how he was feeling? Did their relationship look really good to the outside observer, but lacked real substance?  It occurred to me, for all his obedience and doing the “right” thing, the older son wasn’t any closer to his dad than the wayward, younger son.  When the father comes out to appeal to him. to see his brother’s return in a different light, the older son lists his complaints and basically vomits all over his dad. 
I felt a nudging in my spirit and I wondered, “Am I like the older son?” More questions began to flow through my stream of consciousness: What kind of relationship do I really have with God, my spiritual dad? Do I truly talk with God honestly about how I’m feeling about life? Am I just going through motions or do God and I have an intimate and extremely personal relationship? Have I been “vomiting” on God because I perceive I’m not being treated as special as someone else? Do I get excited about what God gets excited about?
Verses 31 and 32 of Luke 15 (NET) say, “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’”  As a follower of Jesus, one of God’s adopted children, God promises me several things in these verses. First of all I always have God available to me -always. There is never a time he is too busy for me, or is uninterested in what I’m thinking or feeling. Secondly, everything God has I can tap into. When I engage with him in true 2-way relationship – Conversing together, experiencing life together, learning from him, sharing my hopes and dreams, ideas and thoughts – then all he has is available to me, everything is open for discussion. Thirdly, God will teach me to see what is really significant. I have the privilege of learning to have the attitude of Christ; to be consumed with what Jesus is consumed with; to be about my Father’s business; to know when it’s most-assuredly appropriate to celebrate and be glad.
Thankfully, as God and I chatted, He affirmed to my spirit that our relationship is good. And he nudged me to be aware that I have a tendency to play the Comparison Game (that whole why-don’t-I-get-a-party issue). He gently reminded me to talk with him when I’m feeling left out, or hurt; to not let things fester; to allow Him to meet my needs of peace, joy, and hope with his unlimited supply. He brought me back to the truth that I am not to live “all about me,” but to see people and circumstances with His eyes, being consumed with His mission and His purposes. In those moments together, we had a little celebration of our own, God and me, and He brought the cake.