Family

It has been a year, but twelve months later I am visiting my Texas family for an extended holiday. Frankly, I don’t know how they put up with me and my quirks, but they do. Or maybe the truth lies in the fact that we are not just friends, or even good friends, but family! Close family. And don’t we always make allowances for those we love? The more we love, the more we see the good, and happily ignore or forget the ‘other stuff’, and let’s face it, we all carry some stuff from our lives into the lives of others!

In a similar way, I am privileged to meet up with folks in the local church here that I had the pleasure and blessing to meet last year. It was like an extension of family, but these same folks don’t really know me, but they know my faith and values. On top of that, my family has been reminding their friends that their dad/granda was coming to visit. They accepted me on the strength of the word of those they trust. Their word is good, acceptable, and trustworthy almost without question, and all because of their integrity.

What an amazing picture of the family of God. Those who profess the name of Jesus Christ, as Christians, will happily accept others they may not even know well, if at all, on the word of a trusted friend. We are close to God when we are close to His followers, whoever they are and wherever they live. It is a double blessing when those Christians are also family. I am blessed on both counts, and have a reminder of how the love of God flows through His followers, to everyone they come in contact with. How do I know this? Because it was Jesus who said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34,35