Spiritual Hiccups - Spoiled Younger Siblings

I was the oldest of four children.  We came in pairs.  My brother and I were a year apart, and then after a several year gap, came another brother and sister, also a year apart.  From my perspective as the oldest, I was absolutely convinced that those younger than me got off easy.  To my mind this imbalance also grew worse as you moved down the line. 

And so I can commiserate with the elder brother in Jesus' parable.  He had worked hard all those years, always being "the good son."  But now his spoiled, rotten, no-good brother had returned home after becoming destitute, and Dad rolled out the red carpet.

Often when people hear the "Parable of the Prodigal Son," they focus on the love of the Father who welcomes home this undeserving son who has realized the error of his ways.  But I find myself drawn to the very poignant end of the parable.  It concludes without resolution, the elder son standing outside the celebration as his father pleads with him.  Did the elder acquiesce and go in?  Did he storm off?  Jesus doesn't say. 

I grew up in a nice middle class home where I really never wanted for much.  I may have thought I had to do more work around the house than some friends (and some younger siblings), but my life was pretty good.  I played sports, had a horse, was taught to water ski by my father, fished in a local pond, took my turn hand-cranking the ice cream churn on birthdays, and so on.  Still, it seemed to me that my younger siblings had it better and got off lighter.  I worked harder and got less for my efforts.  It wasn't fair.

"That's not fair," is a favorite lament of little children, which almost always arises from feeling they've been shortchanged in some way.  We humans seem acutely sensitive to others getting more or getting the same with less effort.  And I wonder if this doesn't grow out of a view of the world and life that is profoundly different from God's.  We operate out of the view that there isn't enough to go around.  And if that is true, then we need to be careful about getting our share. 

But if that view is entirely false, if God is a God of abundance, then such worries are foolish, like toddlers squabbling over who has the bigger piece of cake when both have been told they can have seconds, and even thirds.

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