We are family

 When you read the Bible, especially in the four gospels of the New Testament, you can find some radical stuff. One such unorthodox passage is Mark 3:33-35. In this passage, Jesus is talking to a crowd. He has been going about His earthly ministry. His family is told about all the "crazy" things that He is saying. Jesus's mom and brothers come to talk some sense into Him. When Jesus is told they are trying to reach them, He says 

"A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” Who are my mother and brothers?" He asked.Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, "Here are my mothers and brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:32-35)

Jesus brought a radical change to the idea of family for the church. Jesus respected His family of origin, but He didn't allow them to overwhelm the ministry God gave Him. Instead of bowing to the traditions and expectations of His earthly parents, Jesus instead submitted to the will of His heavenly Father. Jesus shows us that family goes far beyond the walls of our homes. It even goes beyond the boundaries of our communities or cities. 

When we surrender to the gift of salvation, we are adopted into the family of God. Yes, sometimes we are blessed to have brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers in Christ as part of our insular families, but we have a much larger family beyond those we grew up with. So often I think we miss this idea. Instead of looking for family among the body of believers, we spend a lot of time looking for the approval and love of our Heavenly Father among the inadequate efforts of our earthly families. 

That is why we have a constant ache for something beyond ourselves. That is why we can never be satisfied with the love and affection of our home families. When we sacrifice obedience and acceptance from the Father for the acceptance and love of our immediate families, we miss out on the gift of God's family found in the community of your place of worship. No earthly familial relationship will ever fill us with the love and completeness we only get from our Heavenly Father. 

Christ is where we find completeness. God alone is the one who does not abandon us. The Holy Spirit soothes our wounds and binds up our broken places with the tender ministrations of a mother. It is in the body of believers that we find sisters in faith we can share our burdens with and they will understand without the glasses of sibling rivalry. It is among our brothers in faith that we can find fellow warriors that will fight for us in prayer instead of against us for some trivial trophy. It is in our church family that we find spiritual grandparents and parents that can give wisdom gleaned from holy scriptures that is much more effective than the generational patterns we learned from our biological parents and grandparents. 

The most well-meaning and faith-based families are still human at the end of the day. We all have hurts and points of suffering that have come from the homes we were born into. That is one of the reasons the church was established. To be a place that we can come together and find the healing and love that is only found in the arms of our Father.