Having an immediate, earthly family who isn’t saved is difficult to have sometimes. It is especially difficult when they don’t recognize holidays for their own beliefs and one is left alone on what are supposed to be joyous occasions. Thankfully, for those who are saved we have a spiritual family to rely upon.
The home I grew up in didn’t recognize birthdays, nor Christmas, let alone Easter. This is actually only my third time celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. My earthly family doesn’t gather for Easter dinner, nor acknowledges with joy ‘He is risen!’. Yet, I’m blessed to have a spiritual family who understands. They make sure I’m not alone on Easter or Christmas. They make sure I’m not left out.
“So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.”
1 Corinthians 11:33
Having a spiritual family is one of the many blessings God gives us. They are there to lean on when we need spiritual comfort. They understand more than anyone else in the realm of the flesh the struggles we’re going through. They, who are saved and are our spiritual siblings, have a connection to the Holy Spirit and, thus, can provide us the words of healing and nurturing God gives to help us in our time of need.
Be warned, though, this isn’t a one way street. We don’t receive blessings from our spiritual family only. We must also provide and give in return. We each have our own seasons of spiritual drought, of struggles and hard times. In some instants, these seasons may occur to two or more people in our spiritual family simultaneously. In others, they happen separately. In each case, God knows who we will need to lean upon, who He will use to show us He is still beside us and He still cares. As a result, when we rise out of our drought and go through a season of overflowing joy, we must be willing and humble enough to listen to God and help our spiritual siblings in need.
This is love. This is what it means to be adapted into God’s family. It’s a two way street where we help, protect, share with, encourage, weep with, and pray for each other. We are not alone. We are together in this dark world until either the end of our days or Jesus’ return. So when those who we love who are still lost let us down, remember we still have a family we can lean on. Do not be discouraged. Take heart! Love is victorious in the end.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: in the world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
1 John 4:7-21
Not the Norm 