"Families are like fudge. Mostly sweet, but with a few nuts mixed in."
The Family. What a concept!
The family is God's institution. He planned it and constructed it (Genesis 2:18-25). It is His doing. From the family we receive love, provision, protection, education, companionship and more! Without a family to provide these things for us, we have no hope of surviving or thriving. The family is one of God's primary means of common grace to mankind.
But, since The Fall, the family doesn't always provide good things to its members. As a matter of fact, not too long after The Fall, we see the first murder in the history of humanity. A brother murdered his own brother (Genesis 4:1-16).
The honest truth is, there will be times when our families provide good things for us and, due to sin, there will also be times when families bring hurt or maybe even harm.
So, how are we to view the institution of family? Just as we do everything in Scripture. The family is God's perfect plan, but it has been perverted by our sin. We are to esteem our family and to praise God for the precious gift He has given to us. We are also to value Him more than we do our family, knowing that the gift should never be valued more than the gift-giver. We are to know that our family can never satisfy every need we possess. We must seek wholeness in God through Jesus Christ alone. We ought to seek out ways to bless our family and to point them to Jesus because, not only is our family a gift to us, but we are a gift to our family.
There is another institution in Scripture that God also refers to in a familial sense. The Church (Ephesians 4:4-6). Members of the church have the same Father. They are family. God's family. All adopted by Him for His glory. All are members of the family through the blood of Jesus, who provided the way into the family.
We must love God's church in the same manner that we do our family. We must recognize that the church family is God's means of grace to us, providing what is necessary for us to survive and even thrive. We must come to grips with the tragic fact that, due to sin, there will be struggles that accompany our church life. And we must seek out how we are to bless our church family, not merely take what they are willing to give to us.
Praise God for His gift of family! A challenge to grow. An opportunity to serve. A blessing to be grateful for.
To God be all Glory!
Pastor Jeremy
