My Brother! My Sister!

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Matthew 12:49-50

Jesus was speaking to crowds when someone interrupted him to say, “Your mother and brothers are outside. They want to speak to you.” Jesus answered, “Who is My mother and who are my brothers?” And stretching out His hand towards His disciples, He said, “Behold, My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother!” 

I can picture Jesus expansively holding out his arms to emphasize how He has extended the circle of His family to include all those who do the will of His Father. This shows us how important it is to know the Father’s will and pleasure because we certainly want to be counted as Jesus’ family. 

Before the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Meghan had to learn how to be a good member of the Royal Family. She had to learn how to dress, especially for official functions. They told her about dress length, not using dark nail polish, not showing too much leg, no plunging necklines, she had to smile all the time, not show her impatience or boredom. No Facebook, IG. She had to quit her job in Suits. I am sure she had to give up a lot of things. She also had to learn about who to curtsey to and who not to. If you think that is easy, it’s not. She has to curtsey to Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, but not if Prince Harry is in the room, when they would have to curtsey to her!

In a way, we are like that too. It says in the Bible, that God’s ways are different than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours. We need to learn how to be a good member of His family. One thing God wants is that we will belong in His Kingdom and that’s why He gave us the amazing book, the Bible. In it we see how we can become a member of His family. We can also read the fascinating stories of other members of OUR family through the ages! 

Thank You Lord, for making a way for us to be a part of Your eternal, victorious,  Royal household where there is no place for deceit only truth, no hate only love, no violence only peace.