Is it possible that we can experience biblical parables all over again but in a modern way? I guess you could liken it to today’s continuous reboot of old TV shows.
No seriously, we just had the parable of the Prodigal Son play out for us all over again, but this time with a new set of characters. For those not familiar with the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) here’s a quick breakdown below. If you’re familiar with the story, skip to the line break below.
The Parable Breakdown
The Prodigal Son is a story about a young man who wanted to grow up too quickly, so he got his inheritance early from his dad and went and squandered it all on who knows what young adults were spending their money on back in those days. After ballin’ out, he realized he was broke (not on purpose) and had nothing left on which to live. So, he went home expecting to ask the father could he work as a servant, but the Father was so happy to see him that he threw a huge party and asked that they kill the fattest lamb.
Well, upon seeing this, the older son was all in his feelings. He couldn’t understand how his Father would celebrate the younger son coming home after being so irresponsible and losing everything. He must have been smelling himself that day because he even took it further to compare himself to the younger son and point out stark differences like how absolutely perfect he’d been, doing everything right and causing no problems for the family.
The Father was calm in his response (my parents would never!) and informed the eldest son that he wasn’t playing favorites. Everything the Father had the oldest son also had, but they should celebrate the fact that the younger son returned.
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Now let’s jump ahead to more current events involving a billionaire and the Morehouse College graduating class of 2019. When thinking about that particular scenario and the response it received, can you see how it resembles the story of the Prodigal Son?
Let me break it down for you with the new cast of characters.
Billionaire Robert Smith (The Father) promised to pay the loans of the Morehouse graduating class of 2019 (the younger son) after they racked up a large student loan bill. He didn’t chastise them, he didn’t scold them he just said, I got you. When certain people (the older son) found out about this, they were upset, they felt slighted, and even had the audacity to question if it was fair to those who worked hard to pay their student loans on their own or to the parents of the students who were able to fund their child education themselves.
Robert Smith, just like the Father in the parable, welcomed the Morehouse students back into the fold of society with another chance at life with little to no debt. The way he celebrated these students by giving them a reset, a do-over, is the same way God rejoices and celebrates every time we fall and get back up again. This God is the same God who loves us so much that will leave a perfect and unblemished group of 99 to bring back the one that went astray.
The Lesson
The adverse reaction of so many people I knew or followed on social media shocked me! Imagine, being so caught up in your ego that you forget the blessings God gave to you because someone else’s blessing has a shinier bow on it. I get it. We’ve all been there. Jealousy is a natural human emotion, but how we react to that feeling say’s a lot about us. To be jealous of your brother’s or sisters’ gift is not to respect what God has done for you. Did you forget the food on your table, your job, your car, your health, how easy it was for you to stand, your ability to pay a bill on time? Are those not blessings?
Also read: I prejudged Someone at Aldi and Immediately Regretted it.
There will be times when you ask yourself,
- “why not me?”
- “How did she qualify for grant money to build a house when I had to work two jobs to save up a down payment?
- “Am I doing something wrong not to be able to pay off as much debt as they did?”
We will never be able to understand the plan that God has for others or why he gives them what he gives them; that’s not our job. Let’s be honest here half the time we can’t even figure out what his plan is for us! However, we should be open to understanding that when God does for others, it causes a fantastic ripple effect that allows the spreading of that blessing in some form around the world.
Remember, you don’t have to ask God, “what about me?” for he sees you, knows you, and will always provide us with exactly what we need when we need it.
