Family

Recently I have learned more about family. Jesus said "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Here are my mother and brothers." When I used to read that, I'd think that it was pretty and poetic. Only recently have I begun to realize what this whole family thing means. If someone asked me "Where's your brother?" and if I actually replied with a very sincere heart "here are my brothers; these are my brothers". If I actually looked that person in the eye and with a genuine heart gave the reply that Jesus gave, what would that mean? What we say comes from our heart, so I've been thinking about what it would mean for me if I replied in the way Jesus did.

Over Spring Break, I was listening to Leif, this missionary speak. He was talking about family, and he said that one time when he was down, he called Randy--who is this other ministry/pastor guy. Randy encouraged Leif and then said to Leif: "No matter how late in the night it is, you can call me. If the enemy is gonna take one of us down, he's gonna have to take all of us down".
Hearing that from these super busy-packed-schedule missionary/ministry people really touched me. I really felt like all those people at the conference that I didn't know were my brothers and sisters.

Before I went to the retreat, I had met up with a good friend, and as we talked about our struggles that semester, I mentioned how this one time I had to call my mom at 1am because I was feeling very very down. She looked at me and she said "you can call me too". And when I heard that, I was like "really?" I didn't say that, but in my mind I thought: wow, I never had a friend like that. I thought only family could do that---but hey, we are all family. Jesus said to carry each other's burdens and to build each other up in Christ.

So anyway, after that I went to the conference and learned more about family. (yea, this post is in reverse chronological order: the first paragraph is stuff I thought about after the conference actually. ) yep. We have a wonderful Papa--a wonderful Daddy. and I am His daughter. :) yay