Family Unity

“You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.” Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, wrote those true sentiments.  We don’t have the luxury of  shopping around on Kin.com for our perfect family, we just get what we get.  Given the randomness of DNA selection, there are always going to be differences of opinion, conflicts of interest and plain old friction among  family members. As a parent, I long for my children to get along, to talk, laugh and share in each others life.  Fact is, it doesn’t always happen, and it breaks my heart to see them distanced from one another.  That gives us a pretty good idea of how God feels when he sees us, His church, arguing, name calling and worst of all, separated.  In the early, 1st century church, we get a picture of family; a family who really liked each other.  They shared meals, money, prayers and the love of God their father.  What went wrong?  It appears to me, people held differing views on how to interpret scripture, and voila, you have a breakup.  Brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, children and parents, all God’s family divided. If it breaks our hearts, as parents, to see our earthly children at odds, think how God must feel. There is no one perfect church, any more than there is one perfect family.  If we strip away all the man made “religion”,  whittling it down to the basics of faith, that’s where we will find agreement, and yes UNITY.  God  invites us all to dine at his banqueting table, and be that perfect, bound by His blood, family.   It is imperative we make every effort to do so, for our Father‘s sake, and the future of the family! “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:5-6