GodReflection: Lonely? —glad you are here, you are family.
God planted within our DNA the desire for family. Nations possess it and it is vital to military organizations. It is fundamental to clubs, athletics, companies, schools, sororities, fraternities, workgroups, churches, and family.
Inclusion is a privilege others extend to me and a grace I give to others. It operates like an agreement or a contract. Acceptance is only a reality if we and other parties agree we belong to each other.
To be included is a need filled within my soul on many different levels. Each time someone extends that grace to me my soul is a tad more complete.
My parents—the basic level of family—let me know I belonged. That sense of place extended outward through siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Through the first-generation marriage of an aunt, uncles, and cousins, the clan became larger, and our family grew exponentially.
Life extends many opportunities for membership in countless groups. Each adds to or questions my feeling of home and acceptance.
With all the wonderful opportunities to feel included in God’s world, we are wired in such a way as to never receive a complete sense of home until we belong to Jesus and His church—His Family Tree.
In Jesus and His church, all other relationships where we participate grows deeper, because we now plug into Holy Power that projects voltage to increase our glow.
In his letter to Roman Christians, Paul addresses the need for followers of Jesus to be tolerant with one another. He speaks in the light of the reality that Roman Christians are family—and in fact, they belonged to Jesus.
Through Jesus’ ownership, we now have the power to increase our “getting along efficiency” and our loneliness morphs into joy because in Jesus we find new family and to belong to each other becomes reality.
The great apostle could see the end of his earthly assignment and his life was near. He reminds the believers, “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8)
We may be members of many circles where we are graciously received as one who fits in. However, it is only when we hear the voice of Jesus declare with open arms 
and a broad smile on his face “Lonely? —glad you are here, you are family” that we find His rule over our lives addresses our loneliness. In is only here we find peace that makes our relationships and the rest of life work. His gift to belong in His family is a gift of grace found in Jesus.
Let me take a detour for a moment. Here is a truth I believe I discovered about heavenly gifts. Godhead gifts are rich and to be mined. Thus, it’s good to be reassured I have value and belong. Yet, if I dig deeper into what it is to belong to Jesus and His family, acceptance and place takes on greater depth within God’s family.
If we want to belong fully to Jesus and His body, to have a family welcome and to address our loneliness. How can we do that?
- Key to all is to begin each day with the daily animal sacrifice as we each tie ourselves—the animal— once again to God’s Altar.
- The more of me I leave at God’s Altar, the more space I make available for Jesus to inhabit.
- The more we belong to Jesus and the more He belongs to us, the more we feel at ease and welcome into his family, and the more readily we accept and are accepted by others who arrive to seek the same comfort.
When we placed our faith in Jesus and passed through the death, burial, and resurrection of baptismal waters, we joined with Jesus as one who belongs to Him and His family.
From the start Creator God addresses loneliness. A hymn in the Book of Psalms—the songbook of our Bible—expresses the heart of The Holy.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families . . . (Psalms 68:5-6).
God has not changed. He still greets each of us with open arms and a warm smile when we approach him— “Lonely? —glad you are here, you are family”.
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on Lonely? —Glad You Are Here, You Are Family.
God Reflection 