This is the testimony Carie has written about God's intervention to save her life over twenty years ago.
Sudden excruciating abdominal pain forced me to double over. I cried out in anguish as I stumbled out of the shower. Staggering toward my bed I fell on it clutching my knees, my body in a fetal position. Waves of panic washed over me. Am I having a heart attack? At a healthy thirty-six years of age, I hardly thought so. A ruptured appendix? An aneurism?
"Leonard, there's no way I can go to church today" I gasped. "Can you take the children with you?"
“What’s wrong sweetheart?” he knelt beside me. Worry lines furrowed his brow.
“I’m not feeling well at all. I need to lie down. I should be fine soon.”
Leonard bowed his head and began to pray aloud. Suddenly he stopped, opened his eyes and said, “I heard two words -- 'tubal pregnancy'.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m not pregnant. Tubal pregnancy? It’s probably something I ate. . . some indigestion.” I forced myself to stay calm.
As the hours passed, the pain diminished somewhat and I reached for some Alka Seltzer, telling myself that whatever was wrong should soon be better. By evening I rose shakily to my feet, steadying myself on the night table. Leonard and the children had been peeking anxiously into the bedroom for hours unsure of what to make of my condition. I wasn’t sure either.
Over the next three days I told myself to ignore the dull ache, though I did note with some consternation that my abdomen was becoming bloated. Another couple of Alka Seltzers should settle everything down, I decided.
Still, the words Leonard had heard when he was praying for me – 'tubal pregnancy' – kept coming back to me. I believed in God and knew He worked in many unusual ways, often mysterious. Could these words be from God? I wondered. But the chatter of the children, the continual ring of the parsonage telephone, neighbours stopping over and the busyness of my life pushed these thoughts into the back of my mind.
On the fourth day I awoke with a deep sense of foreboding. I truly did not feel any better and that worried me. I began my homeschooling day lying on the couch – something I’d never done and never allowed my children to do unless under dire circumstances.
I heard the phone ringing insistently upstairs. As I rose slowly to answer, the room began to spin. I placed my hand on the wall and took a deep breath. Continuing up the stairs I put my hands on each stair step to keep myself from falling. The walls seemed to be spinning crazily. Just a few more steps to the phone, I thought.
“Hi sweetheart. No, I’m not okay. Could you come home?”
Within minutes Leonard opened the front door. I was lying on the stairs and trying to get to my feet. Suddenly I felt darkness come over me and a ringing in my ears.
Leonard was praying again when I came to consciousness on the bed where he had taken me. When I opened my eyes he said, “I am sure you have a tubal pregnancy. I heard those words again just now as I prayed.
”Maybe I just need to rest a bit. Could you help me go to the bathroom first?” He lifted me up and we walked together. Before I got there I collapsed.
I was vaguely aware of an ambulance attendant saying to his colleague, “Can’t seem to get a pulse or a blood pressure reading.” I muttered back, “Pretty sure I’m not dead yet.”
During the ride to the hospital in the ambulance I caught snatches of sentences as I fought to remain conscious. I realized I was very ill, yet I had no fear, only a deep sense of calm and peace.
The calm came to an abrupt end as the wheels of the stretcher hit the ground and the attendants moved me at breathtaking speed into a large brightly-lit room. Suddenly I was surrounded by machines and people. They hastily cut off my clothing, applied icy electrodes to my body, and placed an oxygen mask over my face. I heard muffled voices and caught only phrases as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
“Collapsed veins.”
“Can’t get a blood pressure reading.”
“Can’t get the IV in.”
Leonard explained to our family doctor “This may seem really strange to you but a few days ago when this first started, as I was praying for Carie, I clearly heard the words 'tubal pregnancy.' And today when I prayed I heard those words again."
Reluctantly, the doctor replied, “I will do an ultrasound and pregnancy test just to be sure. Your wife is in critical condition.”
Later he reported to Leonard that I was indeed pregnant but the ultrasound showed that the pregnancy was in proper position. “Still”, he said, “She is very ill and we don't know what's wrong with her.”
Knowing from the doctor’s responses that I could possibly die, Leonard went to a small chapel in the hospital and cried out, asking God to spare my life. Once again he heard the words 'tubal pregnancy'.
He returned and pleaded with both our family doctor and the specialist that had been called in to recheck the possibility of a tubal pregnancy telling them "I heard those words again."
“Okay, we will do one more ultrasound on our larger machine upstairs to get an even better look at things.”
When the tests were done, the doctor reported “It’s a tubal pregnancy, clearly confirmed by the second ultrasound. She’s lost a lot of blood since her tube burst when she had that first pain. The surgeon will be ready in minutes.”
When I woke up hours later, I found myself in a hospital room with a large metal clock ticking softly on the wall. It was dark outside. Was it morning or evening? I wondered. I could vaguely hear soft muffled voices coming from the foot of my bed. “One more hour and your wife would have died. You got her here just in time. She lost over half the blood of her body into her abdomen.”
The words "I almost died" began to synchronize with the ticking of the clock like an endless refrain in my mind bringing this reality deep into my heart. Then softly a new refrain began. "A miracle of God's love. A miracle of God's love. . . " filling my heart with peace. Yes, it was a word from heaven spoken three times. A miracle of God’s love that saved my life.
Catharina Terry
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Do we have to learn everything by experience?
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
It was late in the evening as I was returning from a visit with my sister in law in Boise Idaho. I was driving back on a route which would take us through a majestic mountain pass on the way to Yellowstone National Park. In the car with me were my three youngest daughters Catharina, Celia and Grace. I was pulling a trailer that held a baby grand piano.
As we were coming to the start of a mountainous area I saw a sign with a blinking light that said, “When flashing do not continue if pulling a trailer.” I ignored the sign. If I turned around I would have had to go an extra five hours to get through the area.
In a few miles a light snow began to fall. A few more miles and another warning sign. I had a slight thought that perhaps I ought to follow its advice but rationalized it away.
About a half an hour later I was on a mountain road with hairpin turns, a thousand foot cliff on one side and so narrow two cars could barely get past each other. The snow was coming down quickly and my traction was beginning to fail.
I frantically began to look for a place to turn around but because of the trailer it was impossible. Finally the car stopped and the tires were just spinning. I could no longer go up the mountain.
We stopped just short of a blind turn. It was very dark by now. As I sat their praying what to do several trucks came around the turn and they barely missed hitting me. I realized that even if I just sat there I might be hit by a car or truck coming around that bend and still slide off the cliff.
Because of its weight I could not take the trailer off the car though by that point I would gladly have let the piano fall down the cliff to save my girls. It would have taken three men or the professional floor jack i had at home to lift the tongue off the ball. With the icy conditions if I had been able to get it off I might easily have gone down the cliff with it.
I got out of the car to see if I could back up. There was a small area a little further down the road that I could possibly back the trailer into. The road had no guard rails. I was sure if I began to slide the trailer and the car would fall off the mountain but with the snow getting deeper and the threat of being hit if I stayed where I was I knew I had to do something.
I carefully backed up to the area and turned the trailer as far as I thought I could go safely into the space. I then turned my car wheels are far as possible and tried to make the turn. We started to slide backwards. I was crying out with all my heart for Jesus to save us as I pushed the pedal to the floor. The car began to slide sideways down the road and just when I was sure that all was lost it snapped around so that we were across both lanes headed down the mountain.
As I went down that mountain as slowly as I could every second was spent in telling God how sorry I was that I had not listened to Him and how thankful I was that He had saved us though I did not deserve it.
Had I heard a supernatural word from Him? No. Had He given me a vision? No. Had He really been speaking? He was screaming in alarm at my foolishness. He was speaking through a flashing warning sign.
The thought that gripped me so completely that night and thousands of times since whenever its memory returns was that I would have killed my children by my pride. I thought of the grief that would have filled the most precious person in my life’s heart – my sweetheart who bore them. Hurting her like no other person on the planet could have ever done, though I loved her with my life. All because of my pride.
Matthew 4:5-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
When I drove past that sign I thought somehow I was different. I was the “special case.” Though I would have never said it exactly like that – since my heart is so easily deceived around pride issues – I was probably thinking, God always takes care of me so no worries.
He has taken wonderful care of me. But like Jesus I am still subject to the law of gravity. Had Jesus cast himself down from that place he would have died and we would have all eternally perished with him.
How I wish that I could share the truth I learned so devastatingly that night with every human on the planet. But few listen.
When I chose to go up that mountain after the signs had told me not to I tempted God. Perhaps I lived only to tell the story of how pride in the most deceptive of forms – thinking we are the “special case” because of our relationship with God -- can destroy us.
One of the most powerful influencers of my early life in God was Keith Green. Our fellowship had even sent one of our young people to work with his ministry. She eventually became his wife Melody’s personal secretary.
One day he took a missionary family, his pilot and two of his children on a short plane ride to view the ministry's property from the air. None of them returned. After only a few minutes the plane stalled and fell like a stone to a wooded area and burst into flames.
You can read on Wikipaedia, "the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations."
The court records also show that:
"... the insurance carrier required Burmeister (the pilot) to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC (pilot in control) of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements, with disastrous results. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated 445 pounds (202 kg), and the location of the center of gravity was found to be 4.5 inches (110 mm) beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of 90 degrees, the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport."
Like I did on that night so long ago, Keith’s pilot failed to follow correct protocol for flying his aircraft. We will never know exactly why he did so. But someone on that plane thought that they were the special case. He had to have known that the plane could not safely fly with that load. His training would have taught him that. His knowledge of the plane would have taught him that. But whether he felt so desirous to please Keith or simply thought that God would see him as the “special case” he flew a plane that could not fly. He killed himself and eleven other people.
Some will say it was a sovereign act of God. They will try to rationalize away the stark reality that even after salvation we remain frail creatures of dust instead of God’s superheroes.
It was not an act of God. It was an act of man-- a man, just like me. We did not learn well the lessons of history. The difference is only that I and my girls came down from my high place of pride alive. He and his passengers paid the ultimate price for his pride.
I have often said since then that there is more than one unfailing word from God. The Bible is the place where we can still fully hear the voice of God on Earth today. It is completely reliable when properly interpreted. But there are at least two other fully trustworthy ways God speaks --Creation and History.
Why were there signs on the side of the road when I went up my mountain of pride?
They were there because others had learned, perhaps through giving their own lives, that the danger was too great to go up under certain conditions.
The lights were flashing because someone cared enough to turn them on when the weather was turning bad. They followed the lessons that had been given through creation and history.
I did not.
I often have people say to me that God never speaks to them. But it is not true.
What they mean is that they don’t hear voices. I really doubt that as well. I imagine they often hear the voice of conscience.
But I expect they really mean is they want some multimedia experience that is beyond doubt. And yet God has given just that in the lives of those who have gone before down the same paths we follow.
Andy Stanley has written a book called the “Principle of the Path.” He correctly points out that when you follow a certain path it will take you where it takes everyone no matter who you are or what your intentions are.
The reason I love this thought is that it speaks to our delusion that somehow because of our “special relationship” with God we are the "special case."
Great men and women of God have fallen terribly because they thought they were “special” and could go down paths God said no one was to go down.
Consider this, not even the son of God who it was directly prophesied about that angels would protect him was the "special case." How do we think that we can be?
I can tell you from what I learned on one of the worst night of my life….. we can think we are the "special case" because of PRIDE.
It was not the swashbuckling pride of an arrogant rebel. It was the totally deceptive barely visible pride of thinking the path will not take me where it has taken everyone else who has gone down it.
It is true that experience is the best teacher but to have to learn everything by experience most likely means we will die and kill others in the process.
As the scripture we read at the first says the past mistakes or successes of others are there for us to see and use to learn God's way for us.
The whole history of others driving up my mountain of pride and the Word of God was there for me to see and respond to on a sign on the side of the road. I did not need to experience it to be saved from tragedy. I just needed to take serious the warning given.
Since that time I have understood the principle of the path – the path I choose will take me the same place it takes everyone else for good or for ill.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
It was late in the evening as I was returning from a visit with my sister in law in Boise Idaho. I was driving back on a route which would take us through a majestic mountain pass on the way to Yellowstone National Park. In the car with me were my three youngest daughters Catharina, Celia and Grace. I was pulling a trailer that held a baby grand piano.
As we were coming to the start of a mountainous area I saw a sign with a blinking light that said, “When flashing do not continue if pulling a trailer.” I ignored the sign. If I turned around I would have had to go an extra five hours to get through the area.
In a few miles a light snow began to fall. A few more miles and another warning sign. I had a slight thought that perhaps I ought to follow its advice but rationalized it away.
About a half an hour later I was on a mountain road with hairpin turns, a thousand foot cliff on one side and so narrow two cars could barely get past each other. The snow was coming down quickly and my traction was beginning to fail.
I frantically began to look for a place to turn around but because of the trailer it was impossible. Finally the car stopped and the tires were just spinning. I could no longer go up the mountain.
We stopped just short of a blind turn. It was very dark by now. As I sat their praying what to do several trucks came around the turn and they barely missed hitting me. I realized that even if I just sat there I might be hit by a car or truck coming around that bend and still slide off the cliff.
Because of its weight I could not take the trailer off the car though by that point I would gladly have let the piano fall down the cliff to save my girls. It would have taken three men or the professional floor jack i had at home to lift the tongue off the ball. With the icy conditions if I had been able to get it off I might easily have gone down the cliff with it.
I got out of the car to see if I could back up. There was a small area a little further down the road that I could possibly back the trailer into. The road had no guard rails. I was sure if I began to slide the trailer and the car would fall off the mountain but with the snow getting deeper and the threat of being hit if I stayed where I was I knew I had to do something.
I carefully backed up to the area and turned the trailer as far as I thought I could go safely into the space. I then turned my car wheels are far as possible and tried to make the turn. We started to slide backwards. I was crying out with all my heart for Jesus to save us as I pushed the pedal to the floor. The car began to slide sideways down the road and just when I was sure that all was lost it snapped around so that we were across both lanes headed down the mountain.
As I went down that mountain as slowly as I could every second was spent in telling God how sorry I was that I had not listened to Him and how thankful I was that He had saved us though I did not deserve it.
Had I heard a supernatural word from Him? No. Had He given me a vision? No. Had He really been speaking? He was screaming in alarm at my foolishness. He was speaking through a flashing warning sign.
The thought that gripped me so completely that night and thousands of times since whenever its memory returns was that I would have killed my children by my pride. I thought of the grief that would have filled the most precious person in my life’s heart – my sweetheart who bore them. Hurting her like no other person on the planet could have ever done, though I loved her with my life. All because of my pride.
Matthew 4:5-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
When I drove past that sign I thought somehow I was different. I was the “special case.” Though I would have never said it exactly like that – since my heart is so easily deceived around pride issues – I was probably thinking, God always takes care of me so no worries.
He has taken wonderful care of me. But like Jesus I am still subject to the law of gravity. Had Jesus cast himself down from that place he would have died and we would have all eternally perished with him.
How I wish that I could share the truth I learned so devastatingly that night with every human on the planet. But few listen.
When I chose to go up that mountain after the signs had told me not to I tempted God. Perhaps I lived only to tell the story of how pride in the most deceptive of forms – thinking we are the “special case” because of our relationship with God -- can destroy us.
One of the most powerful influencers of my early life in God was Keith Green. Our fellowship had even sent one of our young people to work with his ministry. She eventually became his wife Melody’s personal secretary.
One day he took a missionary family, his pilot and two of his children on a short plane ride to view the ministry's property from the air. None of them returned. After only a few minutes the plane stalled and fell like a stone to a wooded area and burst into flames.
You can read on Wikipaedia, "the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations."
The court records also show that:
"... the insurance carrier required Burmeister (the pilot) to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC (pilot in control) of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements, with disastrous results. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated 445 pounds (202 kg), and the location of the center of gravity was found to be 4.5 inches (110 mm) beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of 90 degrees, the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport."
Like I did on that night so long ago, Keith’s pilot failed to follow correct protocol for flying his aircraft. We will never know exactly why he did so. But someone on that plane thought that they were the special case. He had to have known that the plane could not safely fly with that load. His training would have taught him that. His knowledge of the plane would have taught him that. But whether he felt so desirous to please Keith or simply thought that God would see him as the “special case” he flew a plane that could not fly. He killed himself and eleven other people.
Some will say it was a sovereign act of God. They will try to rationalize away the stark reality that even after salvation we remain frail creatures of dust instead of God’s superheroes.
It was not an act of God. It was an act of man-- a man, just like me. We did not learn well the lessons of history. The difference is only that I and my girls came down from my high place of pride alive. He and his passengers paid the ultimate price for his pride.
I have often said since then that there is more than one unfailing word from God. The Bible is the place where we can still fully hear the voice of God on Earth today. It is completely reliable when properly interpreted. But there are at least two other fully trustworthy ways God speaks --Creation and History.
Why were there signs on the side of the road when I went up my mountain of pride?
They were there because others had learned, perhaps through giving their own lives, that the danger was too great to go up under certain conditions.
The lights were flashing because someone cared enough to turn them on when the weather was turning bad. They followed the lessons that had been given through creation and history.
I did not.
I often have people say to me that God never speaks to them. But it is not true.
What they mean is that they don’t hear voices. I really doubt that as well. I imagine they often hear the voice of conscience.
But I expect they really mean is they want some multimedia experience that is beyond doubt. And yet God has given just that in the lives of those who have gone before down the same paths we follow.
Andy Stanley has written a book called the “Principle of the Path.” He correctly points out that when you follow a certain path it will take you where it takes everyone no matter who you are or what your intentions are.
The reason I love this thought is that it speaks to our delusion that somehow because of our “special relationship” with God we are the "special case."
Great men and women of God have fallen terribly because they thought they were “special” and could go down paths God said no one was to go down.
Consider this, not even the son of God who it was directly prophesied about that angels would protect him was the "special case." How do we think that we can be?
I can tell you from what I learned on one of the worst night of my life….. we can think we are the "special case" because of PRIDE.
It was not the swashbuckling pride of an arrogant rebel. It was the totally deceptive barely visible pride of thinking the path will not take me where it has taken everyone else who has gone down it.
It is true that experience is the best teacher but to have to learn everything by experience most likely means we will die and kill others in the process.
As the scripture we read at the first says the past mistakes or successes of others are there for us to see and use to learn God's way for us.
The whole history of others driving up my mountain of pride and the Word of God was there for me to see and respond to on a sign on the side of the road. I did not need to experience it to be saved from tragedy. I just needed to take serious the warning given.
Since that time I have understood the principle of the path – the path I choose will take me the same place it takes everyone else for good or for ill.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Value of a Relationship
Today’s world may seem a lot different than the one in which the Bible was written. For that reason many people discard the scriptures as irrelevant. I have found in my life that they are as current as today’s headlines.
Reading the scriptures properly opens up a whole world of understanding to us. Part of reading them properly is to seek for all the meanings found in them.
One passage struck me a few days ago. It was Jesus’ story of a father and two sons. I will let him tell it to you:
Luke 15:11-35
New Living Translation (NLT)
Parable of the Lost Son
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
One obvious meaning in the parable is about the father’s love for his son who was lost.
For many of us this story has a deep emotional connection to us because we, like the prodigal, went out and wasted all our heavenly father provided for us. We spent it in reckless abandon as if there was no tomorrow.
As well, many of us came to the realization of what we had done only after seeing pigs having a better life than ours. We came to ourselves and realized those who stayed in our father’s house were still taken care of. In a deep moment of regret we returned to our home and were welcomed back with open arms -- even if some of our near kin were not so happy with us coming back.
We also had in the story a reason to feel a measure of animosity against those who were not so quick to overlook our offenses. God Loves us! God does not condemn us. How dare you not join our party?
But a second look at the whole story gives me a bit different insight. Not that those meanings I have mentioned are not valid.
Biblical interpretation correctly done looks at all the messages of a text. To say that once we have a clear meaning it is the only intended meaning leaves us missing many wonderful things God wants to say to us.
The father does not berate the elder brother for not wanting to join the party. He knows what his son said was true. He appeals for him to realize what has happened. His brother, who his father loved as much as him, had come home. One who was dead to the father and to the family was now alive.
The father also pointed out that all along the brother enjoyed his father’s full provision:
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son . . . everything I have is yours.
I suppose many of us have thought that there was a full restoration of the father’s remaining estate to the prodigal. There wasn’t. The estate had already been divided. The son would never regain his father’s wealth that had been lost. The elder brother continued to own what was given to him at the division that happened before the prodigal left.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
The prodigal had said he was willing to return to his father’s house and become a hired slave and that in fact was what he would be concerning his provision. Anything he would gain would be due to his work for his father and his elder brother.
Any of us who look critically at those who never went astray and who today let us know that we are not worthy of the party the father gives us and that they certainly will not join it need to reconsider our stance. We are recipients of grace. We do not rightfully have a place in our father’s home. But we are given it just the same. Why? Because our father wants us to be in relationship with him.
In this last sentence lies what I believe is a wonderful other understanding of the parable.
The father did not actually have one prodigal son. He had two. Both misunderstood the purpose of their father’s provision. They thought it was to be for the meeting of their selfish desires.
We can see this easily in the prodigal who left but not so clearly in the prodigal who stayed. But it is there just as clearly.
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
There it is.... Slaving for the father.... the father not giving him a single party....
Somehow in a moment of failed understanding the elder brother forgot he owned everything that was given to him at the time the younger brother left home. The father no doubt went on to make a good living but told the son everything that he had was his. The son was not slaving for the father he was working for himself. The father had already given everything up for both his sons.
How sad when we do not understand this. Our father has given EVERYTHING he can or ever will give. He is not the one who holds back. He would have a party for us every day. And those who have understood his extravagant love have a continual feast with him. It is us who determines if we will have the party. But the issue is not really about parties. It was about a glaring lack in both sons.
Both children valued the father for his provision and nothing else.
You see if the elder brother valued him for his love he would have remembered seeing his father grieving daily after the lost brother. He would have known that all the money in the world meant nothing to his dad as long as his little brother was living as he did.
Far from being angry with his father he would have been so grateful that this man who had loved him and provided for him so generously throughout his life was now happy. He was happy because his son was back from the dead.
The elder brother saw the pain of his father’s heart but thought nothing of it. In the place of compassion for his father was a deep seated bitterness that blinded him not only to all that his father had given him but also to the prodigal state of his own heart.
He had obeyed. He had worked hard. But he had not loved his father. If he had of he would have welcomed his brother with the same joy as his dad if for no other reason than knowing what a relief it would have been to his father.
As I have pondered these things over the last few weeks I have come to see that many of us never understand the deeper place to which God is continually calling us.
The father in the story valued the relationship he had with his sons. His wealth was only to demonstrate that value. What was important to him about his wealth was using it to build a relationship. He gave it all to build it with both.
To the younger brother he gave it so that when it ran out he would still know that he was loved even if he threw it all away.
I think the younger brother might have understood that but I am not sure. We are not told the rest of the story. Unfortunately I have seen the rest of the story many times where after the wandering one was helped he turned around and manifested the same bitterness that took him so far away in the first place. Usually the same root is involved. They fail to understand that it is about a relationship and not getting things from God they want.
If the younger brother thought coming back to dad was only a great way to improve his financial situation he would have never worked diligently. Nor would he have been forever in gratitude for the man who saved him from a life with the pigs. Generally those who are not grateful in this way sooner or later end up back with them.
For the prodigal to ever truly recover he would have needed to value his father for him alone. Not out of what he could get from him.
But we see the same issue in the elder brother. He presented his father as a slave labourer who was stingy and cheap. Yet his father had already given him everything he had.
The father gently pointed out the terrible flaw in both the sons as he pleaded with his eldest:
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me. . . .
The elder son did not value the relationship he had with the father. He had always had the wonderful opportunity to be loved and to love his father. The younger brother lost that for years.
For both of sons their greatest loss was not material. They both had wasted precious years in blindness to what the most wonderful aspect of their lives was – the relationship they could have had with their father.
God help us not to do the same.
Mark 12:28-31
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the [a]foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
