Family has always been God’s idea. From the very beginning of creation, God’s plan was to grow a flourishing family. He spent time with Adam and Eve in the garden. He instructed them to have dominion over where they lived and care for their place well. He also instructed them to be fruitful and multiply. Multiplication was inherent in His plan for humanity.
Satan took care of that pretty well. Relationship and flourishing went by the wayside. Satan’s way of doing things took over, and it was not beautiful or kind or loving. It was ugly, and it was hard.
God was not pleased to have His creation splattered with Satan’s ugly black paint. He had known that it was coming; He knew what He was going to do. Over thousands of years He worked His plan, leaving trail markers all the way through to prepare for the revelation of His Great Plan in His time. It was a costly plan, as part of Himself would die. But in the end, the Plan allowed for all of the family God had envisioned to be redeemed back and to become His own again.
We are currently living in an age of great brokenness. Families are having difficult times as they experience separation and misunderstandings. Who of us does not experience the pain of missing a relationship with a child? It hurts when someone who has been a part of a family goes away and rarely, if ever, communicates. Even when communication does happen, it often comes with misunderstandings and more pain.
Yet there is still a remnant of God’s plan for families when we gather to celebrate as even parts of our brood come together. There is joy in celebrating and loving one another, of sharing and just being together.
God’s Great Plan is still at work! Jesus, who died so that all people who trusted that He is the way into God’s family, has resurrected and is in Heaven waiting for the time when the rest of His family, His siblings will join Him there. For about two thousand years He has been waiting for His family to all be together. Yet, we are all part of that family even now! We are the juncture of Heaven and Earth coming together. With Christ’s sacrifice of Himself, we are brought into a family of God to labor together toward multiplication and to flourish. He even sent the third part of Himself, the Holy Spirit to help us until we all come home. We have our Father who is bidding us to come to Him and be in relationship with Him.
Yet, even now, how often does our Heavenly Father grieve and lament that His children rarely come to talk to Him?
