We are family

God’s children will gather at his table

Anumber of years ago, I was at a funeral and overheard a woman talking with her friend. She pointed to a gentleman seated across the aisle from her and whispered, “That’s soand-so and so-and-so’s boy …” It was so Southern. For those not familiar with the culture of the South, what the woman was explaining to her friend was that the man seated near them was the son of a couple they knew. Which meant that, of course, he was one of them.

My father was into genealogy. He had drawn our family tree on a large sheet of poster board using a fine-point pencil. We spent many vacation days visiting cemeteries across Mississippi, looking for gravestones of long-dead relatives to add new branches to that tree. Daddy would have loved the new apps that allow you to do research on genealogy. Our daughter Melissa is definitely her grandfather’s granddaughter because she spends hours finding old photos, marriage certificates and other documentation of family members’ history on Ancestry.com.

Our family have all taken the 23&me DNA “spit tests,” and it’s been fun to see which aspects of one another’s genetics we share. Does my granddaughter’s feisty personality come from me? Does my daughter also carry my mother’s predisposition to have glaucoma? Whose genes we inherit tell a lot of about who we are.

When we read the “begats” in scripture — such as in the second half of Genesis 11 — that tell who was the father of whom in a list of names that are difficult to pronounce, there is a point the writer is trying to make: Abraham can trace his lineage directly back to Adam; David can trace his lineage back to Abraham; and Jesus can trace his lineage back to David. It’s one big family!

And we are members of that family, as are all of God’s children. Regardless of our faith background, the color of our skin or what nationality we claim, all of the people, all over the world, are one family. Some call that family “human-kind.” I call it God’s family: Because Jesus claimed that God was his father, and that he is our brother, because God adopted us (Ephesians 1:5).

We are a dysfunctional family, to say the least. Racial, political and religious lines have divided God’s family since the beginning of time. Brother has murdered brother (Cain and Abel). Brother has betrayed brother (Jacob and Esau). And jealousy, envy and hatred tear our family apart. But we are still family.

Our DNA binds us together. There is a family resemblance we all share. Some day, we’ll all sit around the family table with our Father at the head, and the bickering, hatred and all that divides us will fall away. We will see one another as we truly are — as we were created to be: God’s children.