I love it when family gets together, always have and I hope I always will. Probably some of the most difficult times of my life have been those years when we and our sons and their families lived two provinces apart; I felt lost without them, a feeling that even regular phone conversations didn’t fully assuage. Not only that, my siblings and I have always lived long distances away from each other and that’s also been a source of sadness to me. In our lives at least, it seems that the people we love most are geographically farthest away from us.
It’s with great excitement and anticipation, then, that we’re awaiting the arrival of a nephew and his wife this weekend. They live four provinces away, several days worth of driving from here and years of separation at holidays and family celebrations. Adding to our excitement is the fact that they’ve purchased property and hopefully in the not-too-distant future they will reside just a few blocks down the street from us. We certainly won’t be sitting on each others’ doorsteps but what a blessing to know they’ll be within walking distance.
Lately I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about the family of God, the community of folks who call Jesus Christ their Lord. Like our earthly families, often there are more differences than similarities as displayed in worship styles or cultural differences, to name just a couple, and it’s impossible to look back on church history without feeling a sense of shame for the things that have divided Christians. I choose to thank God for the things that we share in common and I can only imagine our reunion in Heaven! “When we all get together, what a day of rejoicing that will be!”
“Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21: 5)
