There is a special place in my heart for the show “Boy Meets
World.” I feel bits of homeostasis when I
get to catch an episode. While here in Lausanne, some of my treasured, me-time moments are where I get to sneak away into my room, start the laptop, and step back into
yesteryear in today’s skin and country. I enjoy how God still impactfully speaks to me though these shows.
Would you like to catch a glimpse of today’s lesson?
Enjoy this little clip. If you want to cut to the chase,
feel free to skip to about 2:06.
Greatest aspiration. Family. Love.
Hefty, eh?
And how delightful.
Through the counseling school, and even now during our Bible
studying portion, I am learning so much about God’s heart for family and
inclusiveness. He has such a huge capacity for love and adoption.
Have you ever encountered a family that was not perfect, but
their love for each other was just so beautiful and palpable? The family as a
whole is imperfect because it is made up of imperfect individuals, but they
still desire to spend time with each other, get to know each other, and
champion each other to be the best and truest self they can be. How powerful
and beautiful that is. I was particularly reminded of my dear friends Dave and
Andrea. I remember meeting them when they were engaged. Their love was so
beautiful: real, transparent, understanding of strengths and weaknesses,
championing the best in each other, and enjoying each other and loving those
around them. I’ve been blessed to witness how they have dared to see where that
love would take them. Now they have an insanely adorable family, and I glean
from their honesty and ways of loving every time I am with them.
The greatest aspiration is to find love.
Now, to be true to my convictions and pet peeves (and all
who can relate), this is not just about romantic love. I would be a liar if I
said that I don’t desire to find this sort of love, but I’m also wary that
there are zillions of blogs that cover the topic of waiting for that; It drives
me nuts when emphasis and pressure comes with the misconstrued message that fulfillment
only comes from that blessing.
This is not one of those blogs.
I have also seen (and personally experienced) marvelous examples of people
who take on the call of Isaiah 54, spread wide their tents and have innumerable
spiritual family members who also love and champion each other.
Family: Biological. Spiritual.
Thank you, families.
Today is Easter.
On this topic of family, I was reminded of Philemon. We
spent days learning how to inductively study the book; I learned that the
sum of these 25 verses shares the heart of God to redeem and bring people out
of slavery to His family.
Philemon:
15 Perhaps the reason he [Onesimus] was
separated from you [Philemon] for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no
longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is
very dear to me [Paul] but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother
in the Lord.
Paul loved this slave, Onesimus, as a son. Paul was
appealing to Philemon to adopt him as family as he also loved him as family.
Paul was loving this man with God’s love. If our greatest aspiration is to find
love, how am I loving? It doesn’t just magically happen, completely satisfy,
and function perfectly when we find romantic love. How am I loving now?
Now don’t check out and please don’t skim over this sentence
as an overused phrase. Maybe take a nice, deep breath, and in the release, ask
Jesus to reveal this truth deep in your spirit in new ways:
2000 years ago, a man suffered immensely, died, and was raised from
the dead because His Father’s desires for love and family were that powerful. Because of this, Jesus is alive and well today and adopts us as His family.
How am I embracing that love now? How am I receiving that
love and engaging with the Author of it? How am I sharing that with the people
He created and loves?
Care to start a journey through these questions?
God, help us to love deeper, truer, fuller.
Happy Easter, dear friends.
