Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:23-29)
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:14-17)
Thought
After six weeks in hospital my dad is back home, much to the delight of all the family. However he still has some hospital appointments that he has to attend as the doctors continue to monitor his progress and keep checks on how he is doing. Last Wednesday afternoon he had one of these appointments. Dad and I arrived at the hospital where we were greeted by the security guard. Without a letter showing that you really do have an appointment you don’t get to enter the hospital, but dad had his and so the guard was happy to let us through. I was needed to push the wheelchair that we used to get around the hospital and so we arrived, on time, at the appointment. When we arrived one of the nurses said to me ‘Are you the daughter?’. I obviously replied that yes I was, but it got me thinking about how she knew I was the daughter. I wasn’t wearing any kind of label or badge saying who I was and dad and I were both wearing face coverings, so only part of our faces could be seen, but yet she still realised that we were related. Father and child.
We all have a Heavenly Father. In Galatians we are told that ‘in Christ you are all children of God through faith’. What, I wondered, was how well are other people able to see that we are children of God, how well do other people recognise in us the family resemblance to our Heavenly Father? Do people look at us, the way we speak, the way we act and even how we look and say to themselves; ‘are you the daughter’ or ‘are you the son’ of God? We can be, after all, the face of God to those that we meet, the hands of God to those who are in need and the arms of God to those who need comfort. As Christians we know that we are children of God, let us hope and pray that people see in us the resemblance of our Heavenly Father just as the nurses in the hospital saw the family resemblance that I have to my dad.
Prayer
Father God, help us to grow more like you in everything that we do.
Amen
Song:
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