Christ and Family

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   This past week, I took some time away from the office to tackle some honey-do chores, work on a project, and help my parents prepare for a family reunion that my dad wanted to put together in celebration of his upcoming 80th birthday. As the extended family gathered together from various places in Oregon and Washington, I loved watching all of the interactions and hearing them tell stories from years gone by. It was fun to observe family enjoying one another together. There was, however, a hole where some family members should have been. Some couldn't make it, some had passed away, and some simply chose not to attend due to spoken or unspoken tensions that have gone unresolved. Such is the nature of family in a fallen world.

   As I've been thinking about family, my mind is drawn to the larger, spiritual family to which each Christian belongs. The Apostle Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians by writing, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3-6)." 

   Each and every person who has been saved has been adopted into the family of God because God, in His lovingkindness, has willed it to be so. Yet even in our spiritual family, we have times when we gather together, look around, and perhaps see a vacant spot one of our family once occupied. Perhaps that person has gone on to be with the Lord. Maybe God has allowed circumstances in life to direct a family elsewhere. Perhaps some conflict has occurred that has caused someone to pull away from the church. Regardless, we live in a fallen world where the effects of sin in its various forms still impacts even our church families. Paul goes on to write, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:7-12)."

   As we look at both our physical families and our spiritual families, let us acknowledge that challenges and heartache do impact us as we live this side of Christ's return. In the meantime, let us also strive to become vessels of the same forgiveness and grace that Christ gives us.