We Have God and All God Has Is Ours
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
How much is enough? What all would you need to possess to be truly contented and satisfied?
It is the fallen and misguided human condition to believe that more wealth and material possessions will make us happy. But in the end, only God our father will satisfy the deepest longings of our soul.
The older son in The Parable of the Prodigals was indignant that he was always with his father and his father did not give him a small goat to have a cookout with his friends. This young man did not understand what he truly possessed.
The older brother was angry because his younger brother squandered a third of all his father’s wealth on debauchery and fast living, and now the father was celebrating this wayward son’s return by slaughtering the fatted calf and throwing a huge party for the entire household and village.
Luke’s Gospel tells us of the older brothers response, saying, “He was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:28-32, ESV).
The older brother, like Cain in Genesis chapter four who killed his younger brother Able, did not love or care for his brother. While he should have loved his brother and looked out for him, and served his father, he neglected his brother and disrespected his father saying, “this son of yours”, instead of “this brother of mine”. Like Cain, the elder brother failed to “be his brother’s keeper” and to love and to serve his father and his brother.
All along, both sons had access to the love and care of their father, and all the benefits of his household, his wealth and resources, and their birthrights as children of God. The elder son neglected the abundant benefits of these unparalleled riches and the love of his father. He did not understand that he was a son of his father, that he was always with the father, and all that was the father’s was also his.
The Psalmist writes, “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’” (Psalm 2:7-8, ESV).
May we be secure in God’s love and care for us, recognizing that when we have God, we have everything, and all that God possesses is also ours—as we are his children and his heirs.
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Collect For Mission, II: “O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
