A special Relationship ...

Tuesday, June 14, 2016. You can have a special relationship to someone, and that opens the doors of his or her house. You can have a special relationship, and that will determine the way you are treated, it determines your possibilities. Such relationships can be with your parents or your kids, with your friends, with special people.

Parents …

Usually as a kid you live in the house of your parents. When you grow up, you still remain kid, you still have access. Of course, when kids have grown up, they will move to their own flat or house. They will have their own life. But they still have access to all what the parents own. They are part of their heart - how could you shut them out? In particular in times of need, but in any case, as a parent you want to share all you have with your kids.

We have also found a special relationship with Christian friends. They opened their house for us. They gave us access, as if we were kids or family. We felt like part of the family, part of their life, part of their story. And of course you behave like a kid or a part of the family. You are cautious with things. You treat their property with care. This relationship does not have one direction only, it goes two ways!

It is highly exciting that our relationship with God is compared with the human family. We are told that we are children of God, that all he owns is ours in faith. We are receiving the love of a mother and a father. God is father and mother, he is the loving source and caretaker. This relationship is very special, and it is beyond our wildest dreams.

The Spirit as Witness …

The apostle Paul explains this in his letter to the church in Rome:

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8, 15-17)

Our life is so much fight - and we are forced into it in some of its parts. But God wants to give us a deep peace by becoming part of his family. Here, Paul is also referring to the eternal perspective. We might suffer currently, and Christ Jesus also had to suffer while living in our civilization. But we will be given his glory and his love, we will be restored completely, when time has come.

God is different. He is love. He is truth. He is family. He is mercy. He is justice. We are given the invitation to believe in Jesus, in the son of God, in the messiah, in God himself, coming into creation. God always wanted mankind to be a family. We were created to be infants, to be teens, to be adults, to be senior. It is fantastic to be part of his family, truly fantastic! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts