not to us

Pastor Stacey told this real story during his sermon this morning:

A young boy grew up in a house where the dinner table was surrounded by one of two things: argumentative yells or silence.  He did his best to eat his meal quickly without getting yelled at by his father, then he would excuse himself from the table and dash out the back door.  Just a few houses down the street, another family was enjoying their dinner.  The young boy would crawl under their porch in order to sit and listen to them laugh and talk...treasuring the sounds of a loving family.

Pastor Stacey went on to challenge us:

Imagine if the father of that loving family came outside and said to the young boy, "Please!  Come join us for dinner, come be a part of our family."  And a place was made for the young boy at the table.  When the young boy spilled a glass of water, the father would erupt...not in anger, but in laughter.  "Get him another glass of water and a towel while you're at it."  Imagine if the young boy was adopted into the family, blessed by the father, treated as one of their own.

This is what God has done for us.

We live in a broken and critical world.  We are often surrounded by angry or sullen people, sometimes forced into silence or loneliness.  There are times when we have been the angry, hurtful force in someone else's life.

But God.

He comes and invites us out from under the porch and up to a seat at the table.  He adopts us as His own, according to his pleasure and will.

"Change depends on experiencing the character of God."

Have you experienced the incredible love God has for you?  Have you let it sink in that God not only wills for you to be his child, but that it is his pleasure to invite you into his family and to accept you as one of his own?

This is incredibly Good News.  I was thankful to be reminded of it this morning.