Family

I've missed it. Not that I've been totally out of community. But a few weeks ago after gathering to hear a message about Jesus I ended up staying later when people broke up into small groups. I sat in with a group that my friend was leading and I just fell in love all over again with my family, the one that Jesus makes us part of and stronger than any hereditary genes. We shared ideas for raising money to help rescue girls from sex trafficking, talked about what was going on in our lives and what we learned from the message we had heard that night. We prayed for each other, encouraged each other, learned from each others stories.  I just felt so thankful to be apart of it, and like it was the kind of community Jesus had in mind when He talked about the "church".

The next day I had coffee with two lovely ladies that I met in September at a park shelter for an afternoon of food and hearing from God. Again we shared life stories, encouraged one woman with Jesus' freedom and how it was so much better than the rules she had always tried to follow that had left her feeling far from God and like she was unable to love Him.

A few days after that, me and a friend were messaging each other about both of our struggles with anxiety that seemed to hit us out of nowhere, and there was such a comfort knowing we weren't in it alone. We encouraged each other knowing that we only need to stand firm because Jesus has overcome, and we belong to Him! We already know the ending, and that the One we hope in is able to save completely, no matter how life feels at the moment.

Then, meeting up with a girl who I can relate to as a younger me, sitting in her bedroom listening as she tells me with tears her struggles with finding out what love is, and wondering if the sadness she feels will ever go away. Feeling like she is too far gone and unable to get back to whatever "good" feels like. I get to tell her that I don't know a lot of things, but I know what it's like to feel stuck in a hole of emptiness that I couldn't get out of. I share that I know that Jesus was the one who filled up every empty place in my life, and that He is enough to fill the emptiness in her life too.

Thinking about the events of the week brought to mind a verse in Nehemiah..

After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." -Nehemiah 4:14

What a call to remember who we are fighting for - One so much bigger than myself. A call to remember the great and awesome God I serve. A call to fight for love, and for our family, because we are in this together, and we need each other! We have things to give, and to receive.  A messed-up, dysfunctional family at times, oh yes. But a genuine, beautiful family all the same; in desperate need of Jesus, His help, and for Him to shine through us.  So that ultimately, that the world will know though our stories of grace that there is more room in this family, that there is a place even they can belong. And that Jesus always says, "Come."