Mondays with Jesus 2017: Devotions to Begin Each Week of the Year

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.” Ephesians 2:19

Each year, our extended family gets together for the traditional family reunion. When my Granny Bowers was living, she would organize the event, which always took place at Noccalula Falls, a beautiful park near my hometown that features a 90-foot waterfall, trails and playgrounds for children. It’s a stunning place to visit, but even more so when you consider that your family members will travel from all over to gather together and enjoy a meal, visit and catch up on life each year.

I always enjoy seeing the new babies (grandbabies in my case), meeting those who have recently joined the family through marriage, etc. Occasionally, I’ll have to pull my mom or dad aside and ask someone’s name (everyone changes a little with age, and my memory sure isn’t what it used to be.) But this year, two men joined the event that no one recognized. And I wasn’t the only person pulling others aside to find out the identity of the newcomers.

Eventually, we realized that my cousin Lisa, who now organizes the reunion, had inadvertently tagged the two on Facebook, because they happened to have the same last name as our family. And so they saw the invitation, brought a covered dish, and drove an hour to attend a reunion with a family they had never met. (You can laugh – we all did.) But what was even more interesting is that, after talking with the two for a while, we learned that we really are related…way on down the line.

One day, we will gather, like these men, with a family that we haven’t met before, but a family that shares our name. Christians. And what an amazing family reunion that will be!

This Week: Call a family member that you haven’t seen in a while. Feel the excitement of reconnecting, learning about everything that has happened in their life, and then imagine reconnecting with your family members that have passed on…and with all of the amazing family you haven’t even met! Praise God!
Renee Andrews