Like snowflakes soaring and spiraling through the air as they fall to the earth, they each take a different path to the ground. Each snowflake falls through clouds with different temperatures and moisture levels. Consequently, each snowflake is different.
All of our life experiences shape the person that we become. In addition, the choices we make are instrumental in the outcomes we experience. It is possible or perhaps probable to be the product of the same family - where you share the same DNA as your siblings - and emerge a very different person from anyone else in your family.
Several years ago, I had a friend I met through work, who was also a twin. Being a twin, I was interested in the relationship he shared with his brother. Reportedly, he and his brother look identical and if you’ll pardon the pun, at face value, casual acquaintances could not tell them apart.
Despite their identical resemblance, in the midst of their high school and college years as they emerged into young adulthood, the two brothers became two very different people.
The twins grew up in a very conservative Christian family. My friend’s life mirrored the values of his family and the upbringing he had learned from early childhood. Sadly, his twin chose a different pathway and the ensuing conflict left his twin brother at odds with his parents. From the dad’s perspective, “you either do it my way or you hit the highway.” Consequently, his brother left home never to return.
My friend shared with me that one of the questions often asked of him by others where he grew up is: “Which twin are you?” It was always a rhetorical question because they invariably would ask another question before pausing for him to answer. They would ask: “Are you the good one or the bad one?”
Hearing his story hurt my heart. In addition, I couldn’t imagine what that would have to be like for the other brother. Who wants to be thought of as the bad twin? We are told in Scripture in Genesis 1:27: "God created man in his own image…”Just because a person’s behavior is bad doesn’t make the person bad. We all have the potential to flourish under the providence of God’s love.
In the 15th chapter of Luke’s gospel, he chronicles the story that Christ told of the prodigal son. The story really is more about a loving father who has two sons. As you probably remember, the prodigal son took off because he didn’t want to stay at home anymore. Who knows, perhaps like the twin brother of my friend, the younger son may have had the self-awareness that he was thought of by others as being the “bad one”. Regardless, the younger son wanted to be on his own and live independently. In short order, we are told: “he squandered his property in reckless living.”
It is always humbling when one recognizes the train wreck that he has made of his life. In humility, the younger son opts to return home in the hopes that his father would grant him the opportunity to work as a servant. With a humble spirit and transparency, he acknowledges: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ [Luke 15:18-19]
To the son’s surprise, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Instead of treating his son as one of his hired servants, he said to his servants: "Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate". [Luke 15:20-24]
Sadly, the elder brother in the story who refused to celebrate his brother’s homecoming is a word picture of the Pharisees. In his arrogance and self-righteousness, he didn’t recognize that he was also alienated from his father because of his sin.
He makes this accusation against the father: “Look these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of your came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!" [Luke 15: 29-31]
The elder brother’s story is a picture of the Pharisees or “the religious right” of Jesus’ day. None of them were insightful enough to recognize that they were also in a pigsty. They had a need for that which only God can provide because, they too, are alienated from the father by sin. Would to God that they would have the eyes to see.
All My Best!
Don