"“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 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. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.’”
As people who grew up in the church, how do we miss God's celebration and joy? How does the old brother, despite living so close to the Father, has his heart so far from his Father's? How do we fail to see God's glory in other's renewal?
How do Pharisee's who might "meditate on His law day and night," still miss it? They miss it when the Christ heals the sicks and makes the blind see -- how do we fail to see God's glory in other's healing? How do we miss out on his gladness and joy?
The bible talks about eyes that see and ears that hear, but it's pretty easy to recognize that they are not referring to our physical eyes and ears, because somehow the blind see it but the pharisees don't. The deaf can hear it yet Christ disciples don't (initially, at least).
Because Christ has come for those thirsting for something more, but it's hard to be thirsty when we live so comfortably and we mostly avoid sin. We go to church on Sundays and pray before meals. We might even read the bible and listen to sermons, yet our eyes are blinded, ears are deafened, and our hearts hardened.
"Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst."
Make me thirsty, God.