It's Father's Day.
It's so typical to refer to God as Father, and only see Him in that role. I don't want to do that today, because I think it limits our understanding of God.
If we only see God as "father", then we're missing out on all that God is.
We'll miss out on living life in Christ, and we'll miss out on all the ways that God as Holy Spirit moves in our lives.
What better way to honor a father... to uplift and point out the blessing that his family is...
My family tree looks pretty different, compared to most. Mine has knobs, grafts, as well as intensely strong roots, trunk, and branches.
Whenever someone mentions a family tree, the image that comes to mind is more of a grapevine, rather than the typical tall tree.
Look at all the families around us.
Almost everywhere we look, the "typical" family of mother, father, and children isn't as prevalent as it used to be.
We see grandparents raising their grandchildren.
We see single parents raising their children alone.
We see aunt and uncles raising their nieces and / or nephews.
We see foster children, we see adopted children, all being added to our families.
We also see children who enter the fold of someone else's family, due to reasons unforeseen; an addition to a family by safety and love, rather than by blood.
What we think of as "family" is changing.
In Luke 6, in only a few short verses, Jesus redefines family:
Jesus' mother and brothers came to him but were unable to reach him because of the crowd. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."
He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who listen to God's word, and do it."
Sure, we call each other "brother" and "sister", because we are. In Christ.
But do we grasp the immensity of what that means?
Does our understanding of "brother" and "sister" only come from our own personal experiences of our blood-siblings and those relationships?
As kids, we played with our siblings.
We learned how to share.
We played tricks on each other, and we'd get each other into trouble.
Older siblings would help care for younger siblings.
We'd stick up for one another.
If each of us was to look at our own families, we could probably see that despite growing up in the same house, with the same parents, with the same rules, we all developed our own differing personalities.
Sometimes extremely different.
But our love for one another looks beyond our different personalities, beyond the surfaces of our lives. It is based on our common history, and cemented by the bond of growing up in the same house.
The family that Jesus spoke of in those few short verses goes much deeper than what we experienced growing up, and this family that we've been adopted into is much much larger than we tend to think about.
Scripture after scripture after scripture tells us that we've been adopted into the family of God.
All of us... brothers and sisters.
From brand new believers, to mentors; those called to be missionaries; those called to preach; those called to be prophets and teachers, those who've been called to serve; to pray; and to love.
Brothers and Sisters.
Our different ages, our different callings, our different personalities, our different strengths and gifts, as well as the different demons that we each battle; all puts us at different places in our relationships... with God, and with each other.
Despite those differences, there is an unexplainable unity we have, through Christ.
We've heard the saying, "We're all born with a God-shaped hole in our lives".
It's been my experience that I don't even fully comprehend how big that God-shaped hole is, because every time I look, God is filling that hole with more and more of Him, but using my brothers and sisters as the evidence.
I'm learning that in order to be complete, I need my Spirit-filled brothers and sisters in my life...
their experiences
their personalities
their encouragement
their presence
- that's what makes us whole.
Kind of like a body... different parts, different functions; all reliant upon one another in order to be whole.
It is this beautiful harmony and dependency; so indicative of family; that somewhat demonstrates the mystery of the Trinity -
separate, but One
different purposes, but for the same goal.
Where else, but this massive family God is building, can we cross cultural lines, and walk side-by-side, arm-in-arm with people who share our faith?
This faith that unites us isn't one that is based on a shared history, as it is with our blood-siblings; this bond we share is focused on a future... one that God Himself has promised each one of us - more of Him.
What does this new family look like?
People.
From all different walks of life, all different ages, all different backgrounds, from all different nations and cultures.
People, who instead of focusing on our differences, (which will only separate us further,) see the light in one another, and treat each other as if that is all we see.
By treating our brothers and sisters in this way, it is then that grace pushes away our judgements; as our stories are shared, and understanding bridges the gaping differences in our lives.
We begin spending our lives together.
Our side-by-side interactions become the tools God uses to refine us, to teach us, and to bind us further to one another, and to Him.
How amazing would it look if we treated our brothers and sisters in God's family with the same love, dignity, grace, and respect as we do our blood relatives?
In a conversation with my mom recently, I was telling my mom about how we had taken in a teenage girl, and we discussed how my husband and I had done this repeatedly throughout our marriage. We always wanted a big family, but neither of us were physically able.
Through the conversation with my mom, I realized that God was giving us the big family we wanted... it just didn't look like what the rest of the world calls "family".
Because it's His family. And God had been preparing both my husband and myself for this family our entire lives.
