We get to choose our friends, but our family? Ha! We’re stuck with them. Family comes already imbued with fractures, contentious history, and the ability to suck the life out of every holiday.
Carine Fabius at huffingtonpost.com talks about “the anxiety of having to be around the family you do have when all may not be love and light with certain members of the crew.”
The Bible says we are sons of God, the children of Jehovah, and co-heirs with Christ. Siblings. Brothers and sisters in the Lord to the extent that some churches today still refer to their membership with those time-worn honorifics.
Yet, we are the chosen of God. He reached out and picked us one at a time. Fractures in the kingdom? God desires us to be solid as a rock. Contentious history? Christianity is about loving those we’re with. Sucking the life out of other people’s days? We’re to infuse life into everyone we meet.
So, which end of the whirly-gig are we attached to, the family end, filled with fractures, contention, and lifeless holidays, or the friend end, full of love and light?
John 15:16 is our assurance that Jesus wanted each one of us to be part of his kingdom.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
Ephesians 1:4-5 tells us that not only are we chosen as friends of our Lord, he goes one step further and begins the adoption process to make us part of his family.
“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
Romans 8:28-30 reveals the glorious nature of our new family.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
This is indeed the best of every scenario. The most enjoyable people in the world are chosen to be part of our family so that we can enjoy our time with them. Imagine choosing our favorite people from anyone we wish, and imagine assembling them into our ideal family. Jesus has already done that. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He assembled us as the ideal family before time began, and now all we have to do is make the choice to follow after him.
It’s time for us to choose our Savior so that we can take our rightful place in our Christian family. Once we do, all will be love and light, no matter who’s part of our crew.
We may not get to choose our family, but Jesus gets to choose his, and he’s already chosen us.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.L.27.15.vp.esv