Family
I used to watch The Brady Bunch as a kid and longed to be in a family like that. They had parents who calmly led. They had each other when things were going well and not so well. They sometimes fought, but always came together. I’d almost forget that it was a TV show and wish that I could be in that family.My family wasn’t like that. We were often separated. There was a lot of anger and not a real sense of belonging. But truly belonging in a family was something I longed for.It was through a church that loved each other as family where I came to fully understand the Gospel. They called each other “brother” and “sister” and seemed to really think of each other that way. When I came across Ephesians 2:19 – “You are members of God’s family” (NLT), I understood, and I began to realize that what I wanted so badly was fulfilled in the church. The church is the family of God. And my church became my family.Since those early days of faith, I’ve been privileged to raise a biological family of my own. But my wife and I would have periodic conversations with our kids about how our real family, the one that matters, is the family of God. We would tell them that our nuclear family should be a picture of a more important family, where God is our Father, Jesus, our elder brother, and the rest of us are siblings. The Ziegler family was to reflect God’s family. And more important than our kids’ birth into the Ziegler household, would be their birth into the Christian household. We’d only be together forever if we are together in the family of God.I wonder if we began to practice the reality of this, how things would change in our view of and life in the church. I think it’s sad that we too often think of church in terms of what we believe and what we do, instead of how we relate. And yet, so much of the New Testament emphasizes how we are to talk to one another, support each other, refrain from passing judgment, and love each other unconditionally. Church is not so much a matter of attendance as it is a matter of belonging.God wants you to belong. We want that for you as well. If you are not yet in the family, what’s holding you back?