I had been praying into what God wanted me to do on the mission trip to South Carolina that I attended July 23-31. He kept taking me back to a mission trip two years before. It was a few weeks after our trip to Red Lake Minnesota and our youth leader was walking us through a meditation on the Prodigal Son. On the third time through God stopped me and said “open your eyes and look around.” When I did I saw the room filled with kids, some leaning against the wall, some on their back looking up, some laying down with their heads covered, others holding onto to another with tears running down their faces. God said, “These are my children. I would do anything for them. That is what I want you to do.” In that moment, for just a blink of an eye, I felt the most intense love I have ever felt. God’s love for his children was so deep, and so strong that I thought I would explode. I still fall apart every time I think about it. As I prayed for this trip I kept hearing God say “expand your definition of children.”
While I prayed into this idea of children, God started challenging my view of family as well. This came even more into play at the death of my aunt. I have focused on my immediate family for a while and had lost track of my extended family. God allowed me to walk back into their lives and the memories of my childhood with them bridged the gap of decades. For the past two years I have been focusing on the high school youth group. God has given me his heart for them. He doesn’t share details, but he lets me know when I need to start praying for one of them and when they need an extra hand, even when it all appears fine on the outside.
Jesus said that unless we all become like children we would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This has been interpreted many ways. Some feel this means we are to be “reborn,” to turn away from our ways of sin and become new in Christ. For others it means letting go of our control and putting our lives, in full trust and faith, in the hands of Christ. I believe it also means to accept our position in God’s family. We are being called to look beyond the boundaries of our immediate family. To see God as the founder of all life, the almighty power on Heaven and Earth and to see him in the flesh as Christ our brother, bride groom, our heir to the throne means we are all related as children of God. My calling to reach out to the children of God is changing from just the youth to all adults and children around me. I am being called out to mend bridges with those I have walked away from. God is challenging me to see strangers, friends, and enemies as family --his family. I am being lead to do whatever it takes, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me, to reach out and heal relationships.
The bible tells us he will never give us more than we can chew. It appears my cud is increasing. My family has often joked and called me Mary Poppins, “perfect in every way.” Not so true. But at the moment, I’m feeling like I’m holding on tight to the end of an umbrella and the winds have just taken a sudden change of directions. Caught up in a storm, I’m about to land at the thresh hold of the dysfunctional family of man and God is saying “fix this.” It’s a good thing he’s in charge because I wouldn’t know where to begin!
