Don't Miss The Party

"But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.' "
Luke 15:29-31

What a master storyteller our LORD Jesus Christ is! True to the character of all his parables, he tells one more story of the lost and the found in this very familiar passage. Once more, he draws us in and makes it unavoidable for us to identify with one of the characters.

Here we find a loving father inviting a resentful son to a celebration. What a beautiful picture of the Father in heaven who lovingly celebrates each of us who were once lost but now are found. We are the reason he is having a party. And he is always having one. There is great rejoicing in heaven among angels over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:7, 10)

When the Father celebrates, he invites everyone, even the resentful. Truly, when he celebrates and he invites us, we can only come in one of two ways: Like the joyous loving father, or like the resentful son. How many times have we resented blessings on others we felt we better deserved? How many times have we refused to come to the party over our difficulties even while the Father is joyous over a found child?

We ask, "What's the point in coming to the party when I don't feel like partying?" Which shows that we have clearly missed the point. True enough, the party is about the returned sibling. But it is not the sibling that the Father offers us in asking us to come.

Realize that what the Father really is ultimately offering is himself. (Luke 15:31)

Ever thought why the believer is taught that gratitude is a discipline?