No Orphans Here

I read something interesting this week, although I must admit it wasn't in the Bible. In fact, it was an excerpt from a Charles Dickens book, "Mugby Junction". If you’ve come across any of Dickens’ stories, you know they all pretty much mirror his famous classic, “A Christmas Carol.” But I liked what he said in this book about families. It goes like this:


"Family not only needs to consist of merely those with whom we share blood, but also of those to whom we'd give blood".


Think with me for a second, okay? Who do we feel that we could actually “give blood" for? And I’m not talking about going down to the local blood bank. Is there anyone for whom you would give your life?


Some of you might say to me, "Well, technically you don't have any family you share blood with except your sister, since your children are adopted.” But you know, I look at my two beautiful children who in the words of a friend, were not “expected”; they were “selected”.  It’s amazing how many traits we see in them that outsiders would swear came from our own gene pool. From personality types, eye colour, looks and even blood types!  God has created a magnificent universe and I'm pretty sure we don't yet know everything about environment vs genetics.  Even my grandchildren bear a few resemblances to us.


But my point is that FAMILY, however you define it, is pretty important to all of us.  


And I hope and pray that everyone reading this today can point to someone or two who, like David and Jonathan, who are “closer than brothers".  Maybe because we lived such a transient life, we have “non-related” parents, siblings, and children all over the world. It always does my heart good, whenever we come across missionary kids whose parents worked with us over the years. To see them smile and call out, “Aunt Marsha! Uncle Tony!”  Well, you just can’t put a price on that.

According to our friend Google, the word "family" is only mentioned about 120 times in the Bible, but when you add references to family relationships like children, parents and households, the number rises to over 1500 mentions. I don’t think I’d get much argument when I say that families are important to God. And consider the fact that, in His love and mercy, God has given us the awesome task of nurturing and protecting every family member that comes our way. Sometimes that's an easy and delightful job, and sometimes, well, it can be a challenge. 


And then there's "The Family of God".  Tony always greets congregations all over the world as his “Brothers and Sisters in Christ”, and it's so true.  Most recently in Kathmandu, we found ourselves worshiping in a language we’d never heard spoken before. After THREE HOURS, the joy had not subsided, and we could feel the unity all around us.  Such a rush.


And so, as we soldier on into this new year, let's enjoy the gift of family. Whether you’re on the receiving or the giving end, and whether your “sharing” or “giving” blood in the process, know that God approves. He’s the Heavenly Father who assures us in John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 


Come Lord Jesus. 


Happy trails, wherever you are, 


Marsha 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surprises in the Snow

 Last week I talked about three great men who impacted our lives for the good: Steve Metcalf, Eric Liddell and David Hayman. This morning, just for a break, I’d like to tell you, as that late great news commentator Paul Harvey used to say, ‘The Rest of the Story’ about Steve. Tony and I had heard this story a number of times back when we knew and often worked together with the Metcalfs, but we still shake our heads in wonder. After being released from the POW camp in China and being reunited briefly with his family, Steve went to Japan in 1952 to be a missionary.  This was to the people he had hated so much from his wartime internment camp, but thanks to his friend and fellow prisoner Eric Liddell, had learned how to forgive.  He was single, and so attacked Japanese language school with a fervor given to those who were not encumbered with family.  I look back on my own language school experience, and it still makes me tired!  We had a family, and we found that l...
Read more

A Different Kind of Tour

  Recently in Wales, we took TWO £200 tours. Luckily we've budgeted for this, so even though that's expensive (about $300 each), we were OK Both were very enlightening.  The first one took us around to several castles and into the national park of the mountains of Snowdonia.  One of the castles, called Carnarvon, is where Prince Charles became the "Prince of Wales" a few years ago (now he's the King).  I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis must have seen this castle and used it as inspiration for “Cair Paravel”, the legendary gathering place for Aslan (read “Jesus”) in his “Lion, Witch and Wardrobe” series. We also found out that the town of Llandudno (in the Welsh language and pronounced something like “Clendendno or something) was one of the selected cities where thousands of English children were sent to be safe in WWII.  Again, right out of the C.S. Lewis series, although in his book, Lewis didn’t mention that it was only children of royal and very wealthy families w...
Read more

Farewell to a Friend

Good morning,   Many of you know that we have a place in our house where we hang pictures of selected men and women. We call it our ‘Wall of Witnesses”, and it’s based on Paul’s mention of his Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, those who have gone before us and encourage us to run the race with perseverance.  We started our wall many years ago and now have 9 couples who we believe to have helped make us who we are. Of course you’ll see our parents there, a loving and Godly grandmother, but the other people we’ve picked up along the way, all greatly impacting our lives. Unfortunately for us, only a few of these people remain with us today, and it certainly hurt (selfishly) to hear this morning that yet another one has gone to be with the Lord.  But the good news is that he was ready. In his 90’s, now free of pain and rejoicing with his wife…… only having been separated from her for two years. His name was Howard Kroese, but he preferred to be called by his grandki...
Read more