It’s Family Picture Day

       Every year my family takes a picture and though it’s supposed to be near Christmas Day, it sometimes ends up in Jan. like this year.  For one reason or another we had to postpone the picture.  Honestly, we are not the best picture takers anyway.  We aren’t ‘that family’ that looks so good and natural in their photos- usually we look uncomfortable, but we do it anyway to have a memory of how we all looked that year. 

       Family.  It’s an interesting concept, but how do we define it.  One definition simply states, “A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.”  The problem with that is if both parents are deceased do the other kids still living together (if able) cease to be a family?  Or if there are no children, are they not a family?  Webster’s 1828 version gives these as the first two definitions:

       The collective body of persons who live in one house
                                           and under one head…

       Those who descend from one common progenitor;

       Well, that’s not much better because our kids are adopted so not from our descent, and if fifty people live in one house run by an older gent, does that make them a family?  You can’t even say family is a group of people who have a lot in common or get along well as it is a rare family that can fit that description.  Oh wait, family is a group of people who love each other!  Ha- certainly not the way some act!  I don’t think knowing the definition of family is even an issue, all that matters is that we have family somewhere, sometime, even if it is unofficially adopted.

       Well, all of us who were adopted into God’s family have a whole lot of brothers and sisters now that we call Him Abba Father (Gal. 4:6).  We might not always agree, get along, or even have anything in common besides Jesus, but we are still family- and we are told to love one another (Jh. 15:12; 1Jh. 4:7).  We have a common brother- Jesus- with whom we are joint heirs.  And Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers who are saved by Him (Heb. 2:10,11), “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:26).  That means we shouldn’t be ashamed of one another either. 

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ;  Rom. 8:16,17 all MKJV

And He answered and said to them, My mother and My brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it. Lk. 8:21  (…whoever shall do the will of My Father in Heaven… Mt. 12:50)

       One day we shall all be in God’s final kingdom as one big, happy family.

(I think we should practice right now! J )  And oh, what glorious variety we will be!!!  We might struggle to fit everyone in one photo AND make sure everyone looks good though, but I bet it will be great fun trying!  I look forward to meeting all my new family and having centuries to get to know them. 

Hope to see you there!