Listen:
“Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8
Reflect:
It’s “Family Reunion Week” and the tortillas are flying at my house! Gutierrez Family reunions are a big deal as my husband is the tenth child out of a family of fourteen, and has a complicated, ever-expanding family tree that we can’t quite keep straight.
Like any family, this family has suffered countless conflicts, heartbreaks, trials, misunderstandings, mistakes and chaos over the years. But arching over all that, there is a fierce, deep, loyal love growing through this family tree of ours.
When I think of our larger family tree, God’s family tree, it seems we are missing a fundamental “family reunion” mind-set. Rather than organizing reunions together, our rapidly growing God-family tree seems instead to be highlighted by familial renouncement.
Oh sure, we do have so many “good reasons” for our practices of “un-reunion,” but make no mistake; the encouragement from heaven is always reunion!
Rather than reunion, we renounce our God-family power to forgive, to unite together around a common table, and to live out our God-given legacy to “love one another” in the way of Jesus.
A family reunion takes a lot of work. But it’s always worth it.
Prayer Response:
Lord, help me to demonstrate a deep love for every person in your family tree. Let me be a “bridge over troubled water” who makes way for your family reunion.
Song for prayer and meditation:Bridge Over Troubled Water/Make You Feel My Love
Passage to ponder, pray and apply throughout the week: “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
—Submitted by Janice Gutierrez
(Janice serves as the Executive Director of Lifesprings International and will be cooking for however many family members show up to her house in the San Francisco Bay Area this week.)
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