134 days, part II

Until recently, I had been going through a bit of a dry spell. I’d been hanging out with Jesus and spending daily time in His Word. And it was great. It really was. But if you were to ask me what I’d been learning I wouldn’t really have had an answer for you. I wasn’t learning anything super profound or new. So of course I had to give the generic answer that people give when they haven’t been spending time with Him at all:

“I just really feel like God is teaching me to trust Him right now.”

What? What the hell does that even mean? Could you be any more vague? That’s not a real answer. He’s teaching everyone that all the time.

I hate that answer.

Especially because I felt like I was on the verge of learning some really cool things. I was about to move to freaking Germany on Young Life staff, after all. I felt like I should be learning really cool, profound things. Every time I sat down and opened up my Bible, there was a deep, mysterious something in the words I was reading. And I knew I was so close to learning whatever it was that God was trying to teach me. And I just had to trust that I would know whatever it was soon enough…

It was a humbling period to say the least. 

The following paragraphs will probably be/most definitely will be a jumbled mess. Because my thoughts are a jumbled mess. As soon as I start to think I’m beginning to understand it… I don’t anymore. Maybe writing it down and trying to explain it to other people will help me make sense of it.

In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham to “go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”

Okay, cool. For me, that means Germany.

It’s so simple. Not easy. But it’s simple. I didn’t realize the depth of this until God really began to unpack it for me.

Israel’s promise after deliverance out of Egypt was for the land that God had promised to Abraham. The land was sanctified. It was holy.

In Exodus 3:5, God tells Abraham to take off his sandals because he is standing on holy ground. The ground by nature was not holy. But God made it holy because of His divine presence. Because it was set apart for The Lord’s service. Just as the Promised Land was for the Israelites.

I find it interesting that so many times God introduces Himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” He introduces Himself this way to people who never even knew them. But are descended from them.

If God thought it was important to keep bringing up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even after their deaths, then that must be important. Family line must be important. After all, Jesus came from this line.

Not gonna lie though. Reading all the genealogies is kinda boring. Especially when I can’t even pronounce most of the names. However, I have learned a few things through reading these genealogies. One is that family really is a big deal to God. My family is a big deal to God. Your family is a big deal to God.

I don’t know much about my own genealogy. Just that I’m a mutt from about eight different places. America’s melting pot at its finest. I always knew that I was part German on my dad’s side, so, after I learned that I would be moving to Germany, I started to do a little research. My dad also sent me some information that he had found about our family that once lived there before moving to the United States. I don’t know anything about them. What they were passionate about. Who they loved. Who loved them. Their work. Their hobbies. Their broken hearts. Their fears. Their desires. I just know their names.

I don’t know if they knew Jesus and had a relationship with Him. But I do know that I get to go back to where they once lived. And I get to build a life there. I have absolutely no idea what that life will look like. But I get to go to the land I come from.

But it doesn’t stop there. Because this is so much bigger than my move to Germany and it’s so much bigger than my own family.

As Christians, our “sanctified promised land” is found in the presence and purposes of Jesus. The old covenant is still important because Jesus came to fulfill it. But we get to live in the new covenant. Now, here’s where my mind is blown. And I pray that this never ceases to blow my mind for the rest of time.

“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 8:17

Because of Jesus, we too inherit all the riches of the kingdom of God. All promises. All righteousness. We are grafted into Israel. We are grafted into God Himself.

Because of Jesus.

We are grafted into God Himself.

We are co-heirs with Christ.

So, yes, family is a big deal to God. Because He adopted us into His own.