younger to older

God is certainly ready to forgive.  The supreme Sacrifice of God The Son on the Cross attests to that.  The question is, will we, and those we pray for, receive it?

I've been wondering about this as I consider Jesus' parable of the younger son, the lost one.  After wasting his inheritance in "wild living", he came back home, asking the father, not for forgiveness, but for what seemed to him like a fair trade: food and shelter in return for his offering himself as a hired servant,  More accurately, he was prepared in his mind to become, not a forgiven son, but an indentured servant, one who contracts himself with the father for the payment of his debt.  The father, however, treats him as a son rather than a servant, offering forgiveness evidenced in the embrace, the kiss, the robe, the ring, and the feast.

Though the text then says, "they began to celebrate" (Luke 15:24), I wonder if "they" includes the younger son?  Is he able to receive the father's forgiveness, or will he insist on fixing his guilt and shame by his intention to repay his debt?  Will this younger brother become the older lost brother, full of bitterness for a life of supposed slavery when, all along, he could have asked for all that the father had, including forgiveness?

As we think about our need for forgiveness, and that of others, what will we become?  Like the younger, if he indeed received the father's forgiveness and entered into a renewed life as the father's son?  Or will it be like the older, spurning the father's love out of a perverse sense of pride induced by indentured guilt and shame?

May your heart, and mine, grow younger and younger in receiving the Mercy of God.