This week we’ve been delighted to make contact with one of our kin who we’ve never previously met – nor indeed ever even communicated with. I wouldn’t say he was a long lost family member, because we always knew where he was, but I guess you could say he was a distant relative on account of his living in New Zealand.
But what struck me about both the phone call and the messages we subsequently exchanged was how easy it was to chat with my wife’s cousin, how interested we were in what was going on in each other’s lives, and how warm the welcome that was offered should either of us find ourselves half a world away from where we now live.
But then I guess that’s how it ought to be – because we are, after all, family.
All of which explains something else – why it has been such a pleasure these past three years meeting folk from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine – and corresponding with others I look forward to one day crossing paths with in North Macedonia. Because all of these fellow believers are part of the same Christian family as I am. Which means that we share a strong bond of fellowship that was present long before we ever got to know each other properly.
That’s why, when we refer to each other as brothers or sisters, we mean it.
And why we have, as friends now as well as siblings, so enjoyed spending time in each other’s company, been genuinely interested in what is going on in one another’s lives, and been pleased to welcome and be welcomed into our respective homes as well.
But more remarkable still is who else is in the family. Because Jesus, the One who, by His sacrificial death, has reconciled us to God and brought us into relationship with Him, is the One who sanctifies us even as He identifies with us in His humanity. And even more astonishingly, He is unashamed to call us His brothers and sisters too. [Hebrews 2:11]
What’s more, as well as being our Lord and Saviour, He also calls us His friends [John 15:15] – which is why He desires fellowship with us, really is concerned about what is happening in our lives, and welcomes us into His home – the one He shares with our loving Heavenly Father who has Himself adopted us as His much-loved children.
