The brother of the Prodigal Son parable

[martin_ph]

The parable of the prodigal son is a very inspiring story on how we view God's love for man especially on forgiving his mistakes and returning into His hands. But it also illustrated how sibling rivalry is healed from the pespective of the New Testament. This is definitely different from how it is handled in the Old Testament.

But I emphatized on the older brother who stayed, did not do anything to make his Father angry, etc. Is the Father's love lesser? Of course not!!!

I'm okay with the above but what if the younger brother is not repentant or does not even care and yet he is being helped more than you do. How do you meet such a circumstance in Christian Science.

[LoraHoward]

Dear Martin ph,

I would not usually tell a story from my own life, but this applies directly to your question.

We have 2 sons. The older has always been difficult, indeed "unrepentant" and even uncaring, as you said. As parents, we gave him a great deal of help, which he seemed to need. Nothing seemed to help, in spite of our best efforts
The younger son often felt left out and jealous.
Now, the older one has chosen a course which we can see will have him "eating husks," and we cannot help him.He will not let us.
The younger now sees that he has enough, and that we were always there for him.

God, our Father and Mother, ceaselessly pours help and benefits on us. Yet, if we will not listen and properly recieve them, eventually we will be forced to experience some hard lessons on our own. This is inevitable .

How I would work in CS is this way: The Truth is that God puts us in exactly the right place and gives us what we need, always, and at exactly the perfect time. It is a waste to look at how others are doing or what they are getting. If things are out of balance, God will fix it much better than we possibly ever could.God has the whole thing completely under control, and we get what we deserve at the time when we can receive it best and it will do the most good. This applies to everyone and yielding gracefully to this absolute fact is helpful.

No matter what humans do, the real control is ultimately with God, who does all things well.

Regards,
_Lora

[martin_ph]

Lora,

Thank you so much for your inspiring response. This is really what we learn in our study of Christian Science that "Love is impartial in its adaptation and bestowal."(S&H 13:2). Love encompasses all of us because we are all His/Her children.