Find some photos of your ancestors--your mom or dad, your grandparents, your great-great aunt (if you can find them). How many generations can your go back?
Study the photos and look for family likeness. Where do you get your nose from, or your type of hair? Who does your family blame for your short temper (or whatever crazy issue you may have inherited--my wife tells me that I inherited the vice of whistling all the time from my dad)? From whom do you get your height (or lack thereof)?
Some of us don't know much about our families. For me, personally, one side only can think back a couple of generations. On the other, my grandfather has traced our lineage, through one line anyway, to the tribe of Benjamin. I didn't even know I had Jewish blood until I was in my mid-thirties. But I also know that I'm like many Americans--a mixture of many backgrounds and ethnicities.
What would you ask your ancestors if you could?
Perhaps you are adopted--what traits of personality, taste, or behavior might you have "inherited" from your adoptive parents? What have they passed on to you?
Do you have the same hobbies or habits as others in your family? Who has passed on their likes and dislikes to you?
The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.(John 1:9-13, The Message, by Eugene Peterson)
You are God's child, part of His family. What family likenesses are there between you and God? Do you share His concerns, His passions, His likes and dislikes? How would you like your character to become more like God's?
Ask God to make you more like Him. What do you have to look forward to as His child? Who else is part of the family?
Revel in the sense of belonging, of significance, of security, and of hope.
(adapted from Christ In Me, 30 Next-Level Encounters, Group Publishing, 2002)
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Father, You are so good. Thank you for creating us, Your children. May we have an overwhelming sense of awe and love from being in Your family today.
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Every blessing in Christ to each of you this week!
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