Time to Pick the Vegetables

I enjoy my gardens. I watch the plants grow and weed the beds and water them daily. But I never pick the vegetables. For some crazy reason, I wait for Ian to do it, and then I wonder why we don’t have any squash or bell peppers or tomatoes.

For crying out loud, why don’t I just gather the vegetables? I’m out there anyway – weeding and watering and working!  

Reminds me of the son in the famous story found in Luke 15. Not the infamous son who squandered his money and slept with prostitutes and partied hardy until he ended up wallowing with the pigs; but the other son, the good son, the son who never left but stayed and labored diligently and dutifully his whole life. The one who was furious and resentful when his father loved on the worthless and the drop-out and the sleaze and the mooch of the son who finally returned home.

And why shouldn’t he be mad?

He had stayed and slaved for his father. His words.

He never disobeyed his father. Also his words.

And his father never even gave him a goat. Again, his words.

The older son looked at his compassionate father like an abused slave perceived a demanding master -- as one who didn’t appreciate him, as one who kept things from him, as one who didn’t reward him. As one who owned him and owed him.

The older son saw his father as someone other than who he was. So he refused to go in and join the celebration.

But while he was outside, his father saw him just as the father had seen his younger son.

And his father went to him just as he had gone to his younger son.

And his father listened to his rants of resentment just as he had listened to his younger son’s pleas for forgiveness.

And then his father called him, “My son.”

And he told him the truth:  “You are always with me” and “everything I have is yours.”

The older son had been waiting to be given something he had always had access to.

Mmmm…..Maybe it’s time for me to go pick the vegetables myself.

The Parable of the Lost Son

Luke 15:11-32 NIV

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.

²⁹ 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.

³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”