“After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people,
‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’” (Nehemiah 4:14)
This past Monday, we were privileged to have a day off and celebrate Family Day! Although I have lived in Toronto for over five years, I am still getting used to celebrating this holiday. In the United States, where my wife and I moved from, we do not have Family Day. Instead, the third Monday in February is Presidents Day. But I have to admit, even though I am a proud American, I find my family a much better reason to celebrate than any U.S. President. Since it was Family Day, I was able to spend time with my physical family, but I also got to reflect on what it means to be a part of God’s global spiritual family! When we get baptized into Christ, the Bible says we are “born again.” (John 3:7)
And just as we did not get to choose our physical families, we do not choose our spiritual family. We are brought together and united, not because share the same blood, but because we share in the same blood – the blood of Jesus! Therefore, even though we may come from all walks of life, we can have “everything in common” because God is our everything! (Acts 2:44)
Being in a spiritual family is so deeply felt that it can even cause our physical families to resent our spiritual family. Because God expects that we choose His Kingdom over our physical family, (Luke 14:26; 18:29- 30, Matthew 6:33) our physical families can feel like they are being ditched, abandoned, and left behind. And this was certainly true for Jesus’ mother. Mary’s familiarity with her son bred contempt in her own
heart. At one point, she went to take charge of Him because she thought that “He is out of His mind.” (Mark 3:21) Jesus’ response to His mother was firm. He looked at the disciples that were sitting around Him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:33-34)
As you can imagine, this probably stung Mary. I believe that this moment was what Simeon prophesied to Mary about Jesus, “And a sword will pierce your soul too.” (Luke 2:35) That sword was the Word of God. Jesus was the Word, (John 1:1-2, 14) and every word He spoke was God’s Word! So Jesus’ words to Mary was God’s Word, and must have cut her deeply. (Hebrews 4:12-13) But in the end, she responded,
changed, and became a disciple of Jesus. (Acts 1:14) Amazingly, she became a disciple of her son, who was God’s Son!
Mary’s story is particularly encouraging to me because it makes me think of my own mother. I became a disciple on September 2, 2001. During that time, my mom’s denominational preacher told her that my brother and I had joined a cult. Since our lives had so radically changed, she quickly dismissed that idea. However, she would not accept that her religious beliefs could be wrong and that we were actually
living out what the Bible teaches. For seven years, she resisted. However, on December 25th, 2008, she wouldn’t leave her bed on Christmas morning. She didn’t want to celebrate because the reality of where she stood with God weighed so heavily on her. A sword, the Word of God, had pierced her soul just like it had pierced Mary’s! She studied the Bible with the sisters intently for three days and was baptized into God’s spiritual family on December 28th of that same year!
God’s family is precious! And I believe there is nothing else on earth like it. And that makes sense because God’s Kingdom is a heavenly one! However, just because we are part of a spiritual family doesn’t mean we are always spiritual in how we feel or act towards our family. Often, we allow the baggage from our past lives, including the bad experiences we had with our own physical families, to corrupt our view of God’s spiritual family. It becomes hard for us to give our hearts fully. We can lack trust in each other and quickly become unmerciful when someone hurts us because it seems to confirm our worst fears about each other.
Nehemiah understood the value of family. Tasked with rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, a feat that took him 52 days to complete, (Nehemiah 6:15) Nehemiah faced extreme persecution and opposition. Some enemies actively worked against his efforts and threatened the lives of those working on the wall. “To meet this threat,” (Nehemiah 4:9) Nehemiah posted his men with their families along the wall. He understood that posting them with their families would make them fight harder. He said, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
As disciples in God’s spiritual family, if we are to fight the battle to build God’s Kingdom on earth as hard as we must, it is crucial that we fully appreciate the family that God has given us. After all, who wouldn’t fight harder if fighting for their family? Sometimes this means that we have to fight just to be family before we can fight for our family. However, that fight, the former, makes the other fight, the latter, even
easier! So we must fight to be family so that we fight harder for our family!
This reality hit me on Sunday night. As we gathered with the Hamula’s, the Ventura’s, and Elizabeth Wademan for a Shepherding meeting (Ghislain was sick), I got a call from my dear son-in-the-faith, Isaiah. He was driving with his young family in his new car on the 401 freeway and blew a tire. Tony, Kirk, and I jumped into Tony’s truck to go and help Isaiah,who didn’t know what to do. Although we couldn’t legally change the tire because they were parked on the side of the freeway, it was fun to walk Isaiah through the process of dealing with his situation. I won’t speak for Kirk and Tony, but I felt like a dad teaching my son how to deal with a flat tire. It was fun because these are the types of relationships we get to have in the Kingdom! We are family! We must fight to be family so that we fight even harder for as family! And to God be all the glory!
Evan Bartholomew