Do you like stories to end well?  Do you prefer stories where the main characters choose to do the right thing at the end of the story?

Jesus told a story in which no decision is reached by one of the main characters.  We are not told what the man chose to ultimately do.

Many times, our lives are like this man’s.  What we choose to say and do determines the outcome of our relationships and how we choose to approach life.

The story: A younger son asked his dad for his inheritance.  The father gave him what he asked for and away he went… to a far distant country.  There he probably stayed in the best hotels.  He used his money on prostitutes… and probably ate in the most expensive restaurants.  He had it all.  Until… the money was gone.  Until a famine hit that country. 

This son had to get a job, any job.  He did.  He fed pigs.  He was so hungry he would gladly have eaten what he fed that herd of swine.  One day he came to a conclusion… his father’s servants had food and a bed and a good life.  He decided to go home.  When his father saw him, yet a long way away, the father ran to the son with open arms, welcomed him home and threw a party.  Luke 15:11-24

The older son came in from the fields and heard music and dancing.  He learned that his brother had returned, and his father was celebrating.  The older brother’s reaction was one of anger.  He did not go into the party.  His father came out to him, pleading for him to join in the celebration.  He refused… why should he?  He had been a good son, faithful and doing what his father wanted him to do… for years.  This brother – wasting his inheritance and he is honored? Luke 15:25-32

The father acknowledged the older son’s work and assured him the totality of his inheritance was still his.  Celebrate – your brother was dead, and he is now alive… he was lost and now he has been found.  Please join us!

What did the older brother decide to do?  Jesus never gave an ending to this story of the oldest son..

~ Take it to heart ~

This is a story that has an unfinished ending… your story is also an unfinished story… what will the ending be in your life?