We will ignore the fact that it's been more than two months since I last posted.
I have always liked the parable of the prodigal son. It seemed to me the most fleshed out parable (besides possibly the good Samaritan) with even some interesting characters with some depth. When I was a kid the point was obvious; it was all about the son who went away and did bad things and came back and apologized and was forgiven. Everything else was minor.
Well the next important thing I realized is that the father in the story is very important. The most important, of course, because he's God. We can be incredibly thankful for the father in that parable because he's the one who loves us enough to forgive us. We can also try to put ourselves in the position of the father and learn a lesson about forgiving others.
But even from the beginning when I considered the other characters minor I thought the brother was obnoxious. What a downer, the story was perfect with a happy ending and then he just had to insert his opinions.
Unfortunately now that I'm older I realize that the part I am most likely to be in this story is the brother. I'm not likely to be the prodigal, it's not that I'm better than anyone else, it's just that I'm more likely to be the pompous high-and-mighty one.
What actually brought this up was a song (which I will provide at the end of this post) that pointed out what the oldest son was actually doing. He wasn't just being a jerk to his younger brother. He wasn't just giving his father and all his party guests the cold shoulder. He was self-righteously assuming that just because he hadn't been an idiot and spent his father's money and all that jazz that meant he deserved some kind of reward. He was presuming on his father's kindness (Romans 2:4) and trying to get something just for doing what he ought to have been doing.
Now I realize, that's how our world works. You do something good, you get rewarded. You do homework, you get a grade. You go to work, you get paid. You give a present to a friend, you get a thank you and probably a present of your own later on. That's kind of the way we think.
But then there's God, and he gave us everything that we have in the first place. We obey him and read his word and try to do good and we assume that this means we need to be rewarded. Whatever for? Everything you do should already be a thank you to God for simply creating you, let alone coming down and dying for you while you were a sinner and the opposite of deserving. We didn't even ask for that, like the prodigal son only asked to be made a servant.
That's what we're supposed to be doing, asking God to let us serve him. Instead we ask God why we're not being rewarded for our good deeds. Why, God, I gave my tithe religiously this year, why am I not getting back even more? I went on a mission trip, where's the answer to that little prayer this week? It's just a little prayer, is that too much to ask in return for all I've done?
That's why I've decided to finally finish this blog post today, since it's Thanksgiving. Instead of looking for thanks from God for doing what we should be doing anyway, we need to remember to give God thanks for what we don't even deserve.
Final note: Here's that song I referenced. It's even cooler because when they released it they made it a free download to drive home their point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mucrxt8KlfA
