The day after Thanksgiving I received a call that my grandmother of eighty-five years had passed. I know this sounds terrible, but after 16 years, I flew back to California to attend her funeral as well as have a mini reunion with my family. As many of you know, when attending a funeral of someone as significant as a parent or grandparent, everyone is reminded of how important family ties are.
Distance and the cost to travel that far is the main reason for not having visited. As time went on, it just didn’t seem that important. I was busy with my family and they were out there tending theirs. Once I saw my family, it was all hugs and emotion and the overwhelming feeling of how could I have not at least kept some form of ties for so long.
My grandmothers passing helped me to see at that moment she was the connection for all of us. She had ten kids, and I had all these cousins, aunts and uncles to love on and be loved by. I realized I needed all that family love all along. I guess when a parent is missing due to divorce or death, it’s pretty obvious that your missing out. When it comes to distant family, I figured maybe it didn’t really matter as much because they are not a part of your immediate upbringing. That was certainly not the case.
All of that bonding made me think of our bond with our Heavenly Father-how once made can never be broken. Once we have confessed with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are joint heirs with Christ-adopted and sealed by Him.
That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Romans 8:16-17
No matter how far we get from Him, due to sin or lack of time spent with Him, we are reminded of how much we need Him and how He is always still there waiting. We might get busy with the duties of life or fall into a sinful habit, but the bond is still there waiting to be experienced again. Because I didn’t stay in touch with my family, doesn’t change the fact that we are still family. Once I re-connected with them it was as if no time had passed, yet there was so much to catch up on.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
The need to know my connections was great; to know where parts of my roots were established. Therefore, because we distance ourselves in communication with Christ doesn’t mean we no longer belong to Him. Our greatest needs can only be met by Him. There is nothing more fulfilling than to be filled with His love, grace and mercy. There have been so many times where I have asked God to fill my emptiness and comfort me, and He has come through. There is no other way to describe how I felt in those times except full and complete.
You see without that relationship or that bond with Christ – allowing Him to fill me, there is no comfort, no knowing the root of your foundation, or peace and comfort with Christ. Only He alone can confirm us with an everlasting love.
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
Colossians 2:6-7
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him
1 Corinthians 6:17
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