Cassie Spencer

Some families are very big with lots of relatives and some families are small.

Think about your families.

What do you think about?

When I think about my family, I think about big family Christmases and Thanksgivings. I think of all the cousins running around while the adults sit and talk. I think of my grandfather, who could fall asleep anywhere and my grandma who can't sit for two minutes before she is off to clean something in our house.

Think about all those people in your life.

Think about your mother and father.

Parents, think about your children. Grandparents, think about your grandchildren.

Is there anyone in the world you love more than these people?

Is there anything you would not do for them? Is there anyone you would put above them?

 

Think about this love.

How strong and unbreakable is it?

How time worn and weathered is this love for your family?

Isn't this the same love God is offering to us?

But it is more than that.

It is stronger than that.

It lasts longer than that.

It is a comforting love, a peaceful love. And most of all, it is a perfect love.

 

It says in John 1:12 "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."

Listen to that. He wants us. Every one of us. To be his children.

To be his. WE are spoken for. He wants to take care of us. He wants to love us and heal our broken heart. Because he loves us so much.

Now I know as well as you do that not all families are perfect. Even the best of families have arguments and quarrels. I know many times when my sister and I fought over clothes and who was supposed to clean the bathroom.

Sometimes family members will get in such a big argument they won't even speak to each other. And I know that everyone knows someone who can hold a grudge like nothing!

But the point we must look at is that we all belong to a much bigger family. A family of believers. A family filled with brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, but we are all children of a God who will love us forever. We support each other as a community, as a unit, and as a church.

The most wonderful thing about this love, this God, is that He will give the same love even to those people who reject Him. God wants everyone, even people who don't believe. He accepts with open arms the people who defile and curse Him with their actions and their deeds. He wants them, too. He wants the people who spat at His Son, the people who killed their very own Savior. He loves them, too.

Everyone has an invitation. Everyone has a seat at His table. Everyone has their place.

But this very invitation was written with a horrible wrong.

It was given to us on Calvary. On a wooden cross lies our greeting.

The price of His only Son, our Savior, is what our invitation cost.

That invitation was sealed with outstretched arms.

Sealed with three nails and a crown of thorns.

Sealed with a cross.

I want to leave you with one last question ...

What will you do with your invitation?

 

 

 

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 2004 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised November 13, 2012