Family of God

“God sets the lonely in families” (Psalm 68:6).

When joking with my father and his uncle about our Webb ancestry, I nudged my son. “Show him your thumb.”

In a synchronized motion, he and I demonstrated the hitchhiker’s gesture. Our thumbs bent back to a ninety-degree angle. We could balance a textbook on our proof of family lineage.

“Got the crooked toe, too.” I winked.

Genetic threads link family members from one generation to the next through observable traits. Everything from blue eyes to heart arrhythmia can match us to our cousins.

“The promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham…For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God”(Romans 4:16, 8:14).

After we surrender to Christ, the Lord rebirths us into eternal life as members of the family of God. Kinship networks spread beyond our blood ties to include a vast group, reaching backward and forward through the ages. God adopts us in among faith-founding ancestors, siblings, and future generations influenced by our legacy. When you consider all those kinsmen in spiritual supervision of one another, Paul’s mention of a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12) seems like an understatement.

Christ renews each redeemed soul, shaping us into His likeness as we follow Him. We share the Holy Spirit, flowing across time and space with greater power to identify and connect individuals than DNA.

While some Christian siblings might share a few divine traits with me, others carry gifts I do not possess. Though He creates us all in His likeness, we each reflect God’s nature in a unique way.  The value of our similarities remains, but we must also appreciate our differences.

Next time you enter a gathering, observe how each of your brothers and sisters resembles the Father. Who has His eyes? His lips? His hands?

What about you? Do you have a thumb joint pointing to your divine lineage? If you’ve never considered your spiritual features, pray to discern how He designed you to resemble Him.